Friday, February 6, 2009

With Apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Oh Peanut Butter Product Recall, how do I consider thee similar to the 2007 Pet Food Recall? Let me count the ways:

1. We now know that such diverse brands as Little Debbie, Keebler, Nutri System and Kashi all use the same ingredients (at least as far as peanut butter goes, maybe more). But wait a minute here - I thought if I paid more, I was getting a higher quality product? *sounds buzzer* Sorry, thanks for playing.

2. You can check a product’s website one day and it has an announcement reassuring consumers that their foods are safe. But the next day: recall! Are we supposed to believe the company didn’t know they were using the contaminated peanut butter from the mildew plant yesterday? Come on!

3. If you ask a company why only certain lots are being recalled (when presumably the other lots contain the same ingredients, at least they say so on the label) and if they’ve switched peanut butter vendors, they can’t give out specifics - it’s "proprietary info".

4. Non-PB products that were processed on the same equipment as the recalled products now have to be recalled due to cross-contamination because apparently they don’t clean the lines between runs!

5. The Salmonella/Mildew peanut processing plant “lab shopped” until it got the “right” results on its food safety tests. Those records only have to be made available to the FDA after people start dying from their greedy scheme.

Gee, PB recall and 2007 Pet Food Recall - you guys are like twins. Let's hope there isn't a triplet happening out there right now which we will only be made aware of after people start dying.



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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is really depressing. Every part of it. Finding out that the "good" labels that allegedly make "natural" foods use many of the same, crap ingredients that the dirt, cheap junk food companies do is bad enough. Add to that the absolutely criminal indifference of the FDA and you've got a story that makes me want to hole up on a remote homestead in the woods (or prairie or whereever) for the rest of my life.

Unknown said...

Love your writing of this article and love your sense of humor.

I watched CSPAN senate meeting on Peanut Recall. Spent 2 hrs giving piece of mind to TV & FDA who SIDE STEPPED to make them unaccountable.

2001 (FDA inspected 1st time)
2006 (FDA *contracted to inspect)
2001-2006 state inspected.Records no longer available according to plant)Saved only 3 yrs.
2001- 2008 (12 cases found at plant )

Neither plant nor private labs-legally required to report this ! Senator asks FDA how they get companies to issue *voluntary recalls*. FDA says they *CONJOLE* them & companies agree based on legal alternatives if they don't .

FDA worried about humans, not pets getting sick ! Dogs carry salmonella in their systems.. http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp Dry pet foods and some human foods carry salmonella within FDA % allowance! Over that and they act !

Plant under criminal investigation. (8) people died ! One healthy 70 yr woman, who ate PB on he toast every morning died!~ Only Crime? Her age!

Consumers are scared to trust companies now because so many outright lie. It is all about the almighty dollar! Watching CPAN did NOT increase my trust and even though I KNOW that the companies and FDA are saying that Jif and Peter Pan, etc are not involved, I do not fully trust that they will not be later, so I will not buy any. Same thin with the 2007 pet food recalls. Started with type and escalated though ones that said, no, they were not involved!

Pamela
www. AnimalsSpeak.org