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"I'm not surprised this happened," [ex-employee] James said. "I just hate that people died."
Every 4-8 years we elect a Republican to "cut bureaucratic red tape" and "reduce anti-business regulation," and then, 4-8 years later, chagrined and horrified by the results, we elect a Democrat to protect our food, water, air and markets again.
Why don't we insist that government consistently commits enough resources to the FDA, SEC, IRS, and other federal agencies all the time, no matter who is President, so that they can do their jobs, and so we don't have to go through these stupid death-renewal cycles anymore? After all, hating salmonella in your peanut butter, or insider trading and pyradmid schemes, is not a "liberal" thing.
By Dahleen Glanton
February 3, 2009 | Chicago Tribune
David James recalled opening a tote of peanuts at the processing plant in this small Georgia town and seeing baby mice in it. "It was filthy and nasty all around the place," said James, who used to work in shipping at the plant.
Terry Jones, a janitor, remembered the peanut oil left to soak into the floor and the unrepaired roof that constantly leaked rain.
And James Griffin, a cook at the plant, recounted how his observations led to this simple rule: "I never ate the peanut butter, and I wouldn't allow my kids to eat it."
In interviews, these three men and a woman who worked at the now-closed plant provided an inside glimpse into the day-to-day sanitation lapses there.
The Peanut Corp. of America plant is now the target of a federal criminal investigation over salmonella-contaminated products that sickened more than 500 people in 43 states and killed eight. In Illinois, six cases have been reported, none fatal.
Items processed at the plant have reached deep into the U.S. food chain. By Tuesday, the federal government had announced more than 100 recalls covering more than 1,000 products, from ice cream and candy bars to frozen Thai dinners and dog snacks.
Several Illinois companies have recalled products, according to Food and Drug Administration records. For example, Sara Lee North American Foodservice of Downers Grove recalled Chef Pierre Chocolate Peanut Butter Silk Pie, while Walgreens of Deerfield recalled four kinds of Walgreens-brand candy and four types of Cafe W-brand trail mix.
Major national brands of jarred peanut butter, however, were not tainted.
The peanut case is emblematic of the FDA's troubles in protecting the nation's food supply. Understaffed and spread thin, the agency routinely has turned food inspections over to the states. But watchdog groups say the states often are ill-equipped to monitor facilities where food products are stored, processed or manufactured.
In coming days, President Barack Obama plans to announce a new FDA commissioner and other officials who will implement a "stricter regulatory structure" to improve oversight in food-safety inspections, a White House spokesman said.
The American Peanut Council, a trade association representing all segments of the nation's peanut industry, issued a statement responding to an FDA report that the company knowingly released a product with potential salmonella contamination into the food supply.
"This is a clear and unconscionable act by one manufacturer," the council stated. "This act is not by any means representative of the excellent food safety practices and procedures of the U.S. peanut industry."
[You know you've been bad when the America Peanut Council throws you under the bus. – J]
Peanut Corp. said last week it did not agree with all the FDA findings and has taken corrective measures that would be submitted to the agency in writing. A spokeswoman said she could not respond to specific allegations of workers who talked to the Tribune.
According to news reports, Georgia state inspectors found repeated cleanliness problems at the plant from 2006 to 2008, including grease and food buildup and gaps in doors that could allow rodents to enter.
Then late last year, several states reported mysterious cases of salmonella.
When Minnesota officials tested a jar of peanut butter from a nursing home on Jan. 9, results showed salmonella. The jar was traced to Peanut Corp., prompting FDA inspectors to investigate the Georgia plant. FDA officials said that by invoking anti-terrorism laws, they obtained internal company records that Georgia inspectors could not. These included lab tests that found salmonella on 12 occasions in the past two years.
The FDA said Peanut Corp. sent contaminated samples to various labs until it got a negative result, then shipped the product to vendors.
"This plant was running tests for their own information but ignoring all the positive test results," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nutrition advocacy group. "They ignored anything they did not like."
The stories of former workers at the Blakely plant illustrate what can happen when the state and federal regulatory system breaks down. The workers said problems at the plant were obvious and long-running, raising questions about why it took so long for inspectors to fully uncover them.
According to the workers, not a day went by that they didn't see roaches or rats scurrying about. And after a heavy rain, workers said, they had to step over puddles of water inside the building.
"It was pretty filthy around there," said Jones, 50, who said he worked in the sanitation department for eight months before he was laid off. "Whenever it rained back in the [peanut] butter part, it was like it was raining inside. It was coming in through the roof and the vents, but that didn't stop them from making the paste," he said.
Jones said he earned $6.55 an hour and was happy to have the job, which included mopping up water and setting rat traps that sometimes caught three or four rodents a day.
A recent FDA inspection report did not note specific signs of rodents. But it did cite large openings along the sides and tops of the trailers that contained totes of raw or roasted peanuts. It also noted roaches; mold on the walls and ceiling and in the storage cooler; dirty utensils and equipment used in food preparation; and open gaps in the roof, allowing for wet conditions that could cause salmonella contamination.
The former workers said they saw many such problems and more. Griffin, 27, who was responsible for operating roasting machines, said he made sure he cleaned them every two weeks, and he said the plant was not as dirty as it has been portrayed by some. It was not always as clean in the area where peanut butter and paste were produced, he said.
Teresa Spencer, 30, who said she worked at the plant for two years before she was laid off in 2007, complained that employees on the peanut line—not professional cleaners—were often required to clean the plant and did it inefficiently.
"They needed to hire a cleanup crew because you can't do your job and clean up too," said Spencer, who worked as a quality sorter, picking rocks, sticks and bad peanuts from the conveyor line.
Another former employee, James, 36, said he worked in the shipping area for eight months before leaving last year. During that time, James said he "saw them put new stickers on buckets of peanut paste that were out-of-date. There were roaches, rats and everything out there.
"Some of the bags of nuts had holes in them, and you could tell rats had eaten through them. And they would put tape on them or sew them up and send them out," James said. "Sometimes there would be mold on them, and they told us to pick out the good nuts and put them in another bag."
He said the employees often talked among themselves about the conditions, but he said most workers did not complain to management because they wanted to keep their jobs.
"I'm not surprised this happened," James said. "I just hate that people died."
Tribune reporter Sam Roe contributed to this report.
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