How was it that the Peanut Corporation of America was able to supply contaminated food to so many companies?
This Washington Post article explains what went wrong. It appears most food companies weren’t carrying out inspections of PCA. Instead, they were relying on independent auditing companies to certify PCA’s peanuts as safe.
And one auditing company didn’t want to imperil the $1000 in annual certification fees it received each year from PCA. Let that sink in for a minute: a salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and cost Kellogg’s alone $70 million was largely made possible through a $1000 sheet of paper.
California Congressman Henry Waxman says of the auditing company:
They gave PCA glowing reviews. The company was selected by PCA, paid by PCA, and realized that if they didn’t give PCA a glowing review, they were not going to get hired again.
So, get this, to keep that whopping thousand dollars a year coming in, the auditing company would tell PCA when they were showing up to do their inspection. They even let PCA choose the day!
And the auditors didn’t just certify the plant as safe. From the Post article:
“They gave PCA a certificate of achievement,” added Waxman, who held up the certificate in one hand and with the other waved a photograph, taken by federal investigators, of dead rodents inside a PCA facility. “How do you have a company that looks like this getting a certificate of achievement? . . . It really makes you think there must be something wrong.”
Well, PCA definitely achieved something, that’s for sure. Link.
