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Food Hazards Elude Private Inspectors

Food poisoning outbreaks traced back to dangers cut-price auditors missed

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 6, 2009 6:43 AM CST

(Newser) – The job of monitoring America's food plants is falling more and more to private inspectors who often miss hazards, a New York Times investigation finds. Plants hire such auditors to reassure customers and reduce liability, but the companies often pick the cheapest and least rigorous audits available. Some of the largest food poisoning outbreaks in recent years can be traced to plants where private auditors failed to spot problems.

At the Peanut Corporation of America, source of a salmonella outbreak blamed for nine deaths, a private auditor—paid by the company itself and unaware that peanuts were susceptible to salmonella—was given just a day to inspect the firm's huge, dilapidated plant. “The overall food safety level of this facility was considered to be: SUPERIOR," he wrote in his report.

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In a Jan. 29 file photo, an Early County Sheriffs car leaves the parking lot at the the Peanut Corporation of America processing plant in Blakely, Ga. (AP Photo/Ric Feld/file)

A microbiologist holds a bag of tomatoes being tested for salmonella bacteria at Food and Drug Administration's southwest regional research lab. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

In this 2008 file photo, tomatoes are for sale in Philadelphia. Last summer, the FDA had to issue a salmonella warning about them. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

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The contributions of third-party audits to food safety is the same as the contribution of mail-order diploma mills to education. - Mansour Samadpour, a Seattle consultant who has worked with companies nationwide to improve food safety

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Food Hazards Elude Private Inspectors