Peanut Butter kills if companies don't qualify their vendors

More information about companies who audited Peanut Corporation of America and looked the other way because cost was more important than their customer's lives.


Nestlé's Inspectors Saw Rat Droppings, Rejected Peanuts

Nestlé USA, considering whether to buy ingredients from Peanut Corporation of America, twice sent its own inspectors to check out the company. Both times, they rejected the company after finding sanitary problems at its facilities in Georgia and Texas, noting rat droppings, live beetles, dead insects and the potential for microbial contamination.

What if Nestle Had Told the FDA?

FDA now accepts whistleblowers through its homepage

Financial institutions have been paying bonuses for bad behavior for 5 years

Compliance officers have noticed. See the article March 20 on Law.com.

Chevy Chase Bank passed by the get-rich-quick schemes, just as it did in the 1980s when the Republican Keating Five brought down the American Savings & Loans. The reason? - SnLs were issuing the same kind of "liar loans" that brought on the financial crisis today. Those loans would never be paid back and the institutions knew it. The difference in banks who survived versus those that didn't, then and now, was the existence of strong compliance departments who looked out for the long term health and survival of the company.

The Corporate Library, which researches and reports on corporate governance, began criticizing the [Countrywide, the first and leading subprime lender] in 2004, when it was a Wall Street darling with a surging stock price.

What did the Corporate Library notice? The CEO's pay package... wasn't the long-term sort that governance consultants recommend; his bonus was calculated in part by the rise in the stock price from the previous year.

Why make such a big deal over pay? Nell Minow, The Corporate Library's co-founder, says that CEO comp is "overwhelmingly" the most consistent predictor of poor performance. As her Countrywide report explained: "Any board which can make such poor decisions about a CEO's compensation package is almost certain to be making poor decisions elsewhere in its range of responsibilities." In fact, all the companies that received bailout funds to date were rated D or F by her group, ratings based in large part on skewed executive compensation, she adds.

Industry: "Regulatory Incentives languish" for safety and efficacy

The gold standard in the regulated product industry, The Gold Sheet (Vol 43, No 1) has some advice for Regulatory and Quality staff. (RAQA are those staffers who told Peanut Corp of America that it would be illegal and dangerous to sell deadly contaminated peanut butter. ) Last month's Gold Sheet says death and jail is not enough to stop criminal profiteers - RAQA now has to show how complying with the law saves money. Why? because "regulatory incentives languish."

That means for the last 8 years, FDA has not been allowed to do its job. And regulated companies know it.

"FDA officials encourage industry to concentrate on the business benefits of [Quality by Design or] QbD. [Controlling manufacturing or] CMC pilot [program]s raised questions about cost effectiveness."

Peanut Butter and Salmonella, explained

When a product tests out of its specification, the product must be quarantined. That is why specifications exist.

The peanut butter made by the Peanut Butter Corporation of America tested positive for salmonella. It should have been quarantined.

• That doesn't mean it can never be used. The manufacturer can investigate the cause under a plan.
• The manufacturer can find out what was the root cause of the problem.
• The manufacturer can fix the root cause, and may even recondition the food if the plan will eliminate the contamination.

What the manufacturer cannot do, is simply retest to see if another result will be produced. This has been prohibited by law for at least the past 15 years. But that's exactly what PCA did.
How many manufacturers simply retest? Under the current system there is no way to know. FDA, and the public health, depend on employees of the manufacturers themselves to stand up to marketing, sales, and even Presidents and CEOs, to prevent the shipment of contaminated foods, drugs, and devices. Some employees report to corrupt companies in corrupt countries far away. In this US facility, emails from PCA employees disclose a battered staff trying hard to get their company heads to follow the law. These employees are just a paycheck away from not working. This is a one of several gaping holes in the safety net.

FDA has no authority to recall many products without company approval.

FDA needs investigators now.

Senate wants to pay us to shop for junk

Compare the Senate and House stimulus plans:

The Democrats in the House propose to increase spending to help poor, and to save schools and public works projects that have suffered under the tax cuts and silly stimulus packages that have gotten us into this mess. The Senate wants to pay us to shop for houses and cars, buying more environmentally harmful junk from companies and banks who can use taxpayer bail-outs to pay stock options and executive bonuses.

WaPO has a helpful graphic here.

AP's Comparison of economic stimulus plans here.

ACTION: Contact Congress easily - use this link!