Peanut Processor Knowingly Sold Tainted Products

From the Washington Post:

The Georgia peanut plant linked to a salmonella outbreak that has killed eight people and sickened 500 more across the country knowingly shipped out contaminated peanut butter 12 times in the past two years, federal officials said yesterday.

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.

Champions of deregulation and “free market” principles will tell you that these things don’t happen because the market regulates itself, making sure that businesses like this don’t succeed.

I’m sure that’s great comfort to the 8 people killed and 501 sickened in this outbreak.