"Officials at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which have been investigating the outbreak of salmonella illness, said yesterday that Peanut Corporation of America found salmonella in internal tests a dozen times in 2007 and 2008 but sold the products anyway, sometimes after getting a negative finding from a different laboratory.

"Companies are not required to disclose their internal tests to either the FDA or state regulators, so health officials did not know of the problem."

Why not? The lack of oversight of Bush's FDA is well known and criminal.  

"Major-label peanut butter is not suspected to be contaminated with salmonella and is considered safe to eat, according to the FDA. The makers of several major brands, including Peter Pan, Jif and Smuckers, are worried that panicky consumers will stop buying their products, and they have been taking pains to point out that their peanut butters are not part of the outbreak.

"Though Peanut Corporation of America, based in Lynchburg, Va., was not required to inform regulators about its internal salmonella tests, Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said it appears that the company violated federal law. "Foods are supposed to be produced under conditions that do not render them damaging to health," he said.

"Sundlof said he could not say whether the company might face criminal charges."

Might, just might!  Again, why not?  The company deliberately shipped contaminated peanut butter that killed and sickened people.

Why do corporations keep getting away with murder, literally?

"FDA officials said they still do not know the how the plant was contaminated and how the bacteria got into the peanut products, although state inspection records show a pattern of unsanitary conditions over several years. In each case, inspectors flagged the problems but said they required routine follow-up. There is no evidence that Peanut Corporation of America was ever closed by the state or otherwise penalized.

"The FDA has never inspected the plant, instead delegating that duty under a contract to the Georgia Department of Agriculture. The federal agency has said it does not have enough inspectors to visit the country's 65,520 domestic food production facilities. In fiscal 2008, it inspected 5,930 plants."

Again, why didn't the FDA conduct the inspections since the product was shipped nationwide to so many food manufacturers.  Why wasn't there oversight of the contracted Georgia Department of Agriculture?  Shouldn't those Bushite loyalists who cut the numbers of FDA inspectors be held accountable?

"But Jean Halloran, director of food safety for Consumers Union, said if the government was adequately protecting the food supply, the outbreak could have been minimized or even prevented, and lives could have been saved. Major reforms in inspections and regulations are past due, she said.

" 'The average plant is inspected once every 10 years,' Halloran said. 'This one was getting inspected a couple of times a year by Georgia, but neither they nor the FDA were taking enough enforcement action.' "

My God! Only once every 10 years!

What is the attitude here...a crap game where a ho hum attitude greets the news of consumers who died or were sickened by the companies whose plant operations the FDA refused to inspect or irresponsibly delegated that job?

This is unconscionable and completely unacceptable.  That company's management should be in jail for murder.