Perhaps, we should consider making our own peanut butter, for those who can still stomach the idea of a peanut butter anything.
Today the Peanut Corporation of America’s Plainview, Texas had all its products recalled… for the past 4 years!
The Texas Department of State Health Services on Thursday ordered the recall of all products ever shipped from the Peanut Corporation of America’s plant in Plainview, Texas, after discovering dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in the plant.
The order, which applies to products shipped since the plant opened nearly four years ago, came a day after the discovery of filth in a crawl space above a production area during a health services inspection, the department said in a news release.
Inspectors also reported that the plant’s ventilation system was pulling debris “from the infested crawl space into production areas of the plant resulting in the adulteration of exposed food products,” the release said.
The plant stopped operations on Monday and cannot reopen without health services approval. The question is who is willing to believe how safe “health services approval” will make the peanut products. The Blakely, Georgia plant had been inspected. Of course, we are talking Texas and Georgia, but…
The truth is that the lack of authority and the lack of manpower has rendered the FDA the most useless agency in the government. The FDA concentrates primarily on approving pharmaceutical products and that is based on the testing done by the pharmaceutical companies and reported to the FDA by those same companies.
The bottomline seems to be that the FDA is a sham, relying solely on the producer to not only produce products but to produce test results and report them. In essence, the FDA does nothing but rubber stamp results given to them by those who will most benefit.
Having watched the most recent hearings held by the Congressional committees and subcommittees, it is obvious that the FDA has no authority to do anything and less manpower than authority. Perhaps, Congress can either disband the FDA in its entirety and tell the American people that we are on our own or maybe they can clean up an agency that is as incompetent as those they profess to regulate.
Quite frankly, Congress and the White House should be told that when a product… food or drug… says “FDA approved” it is now equivalent to the warning on a pack of cigarettes. Following the “May be hazardous to your health” they can add “Use at your own risk.”
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