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Things aren’t looking too good for Stewart Parnell and his Peanut Corporation of America.  He and Sammy Lightsey (manager of Peanut Corporation’s Blakely, Georgia plant) were called to testify to a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Wednesday, about the salmonella outbreak attributed to peanut products produced by Peanut Corporation.

Taking the Fifth (and Some Pesky Emails)

While both he and Lightsey refused to testify, citing their Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has some interesting documents on their website, including this October 6th, 2008 email from Parnell to Lightsey, which discusses a postive test for salmonella.  My read of the email indicates that Parnell is more concerned with the monetary costs (“costing us huge $$$$$”) of their contaminated products than he is with the health concerns.

On January 12th, as reports of illness possibly caused by contaminated peanut products spread, Parnell sent an email to Peanut Corporation managers and executives, in which he states, “As you probably know, we send hourly PB samples to an independent lab to test for salmonella during production of peanut butter, and we have never found any salmonella at all.”  He further states, “No salmonella has been found anywhere else in our products or in our plants, or in any unopened containers of our product.”

Hmm, I guess “no salmonella has been found anywhere else in our products or in our plants” just doesn’t mean what it used to mean, does it?

Hundreds and Hundreds of Items Recalled

Peanut Corp. wasn’t producing finished food goods, but providing processed peanut products to consumer goods companies.  In fact, Peanut Corporation’s contaminated products have lead to one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history.  Around 1700 products are being recalled.

In addition to the cost of the recalling the products (for which I haven’t even found an estimate), Peanut Corporation’s customers are out millions for the food products that they produced with Peanut Corporation’s contaminated peanut products.  As of yet, I haven’t seen any lawsuits filed by Peanut Corporation’s customers, but that is just a matter of time.

From Bad to Worse

The massive financial impact caused by Peanut Corporation’s contaminated products isn’t the worst of it, though.  So far, there have been nine deaths and over 600 cases of illness (across fourty-three states) attributed to products containing Peanut Corporation’s contaminated peanuts.  One has to expect compensatory lawsuits by those made ill and wrongful death lawsuits brought by the survivors of those who died.

Worse for Parnell (and possibly others at Peanut Corporation) is the possibility of criminal charges.  If they knowingly allowed distribution of contaminated products, they could (and should) face jail time.

Food Safety Changes?

While the recall rolls on, the Georgia State Legislature is looking to make changes to it food safety programs ( Amid peanut scandal, Georgia moves to tighten its food-safety net | csmonitor.com and Ga. panel OKs testing | ajc.com).  The proposed changes, requiring regular testing and submission of results to the state Agriculture Commission and retention of testing results for two years, might have prevented the current recall situation (or at the least limited its scope and impact).

At the Federal level, there should be little doubt that the FDA will be called upon to step up food safety programs and Congress should be ready to provide the resources necessary for sensible oversight (note: I said “sensible oversight”, I have no doubt that Congress will be all too eager to increase oversight, I do doubt they will constrain themselves to what is “sensible”).

Just Nuts

Making changes to provide better protection from tainted food products is great and obviously overdue, given the far reaching impact the current peanut recall is having.  That said, it seems to me that one of the core issue here is one of greed and hubris.  I don’t have a problem with people wanting to make more money or to be rich – heck, I want to make more money and I wouldn’t mind making enough to be called ‘rich’ ( if you ever find yourself with too much money, please feel free to send it to me).

I do have a problem with the people who think they can do it at the public’s expense, whether by hoisting dangerous, contaminated food on unsuspecting customers, trying to defaud creditors with shady real estate deals, working people over with Ponzi schemes, or handing out billions to executive buddies while your company is going down the tubes and is about to be acquired using government funds (and then using 1+ million dollars to redecorate your office AFTER being bought out using government funds).

I honestly don’t think the examples I just listed are typical.  They have to be outliers.  However, we are talking about thousands of lives impacted and billions of dollars going down the tubes.

What’s the worst that is going to happen to these outliers?

• Parnell – will hopefully see the inside of a jail cell, if it is proven that he knowingly distributed contaminated peanut products which resulted in illness and death.
• Fuld – a slap on the wrist?
• Madoff – a six month stay in a ‘Club Fed‘ prison?
• Thain – a golden parachute and further millions from what is, undoubtedly, a bright future in the financial industry?

Until these kinds of people are actually faced with some real penalties, they’ll continue to soak the public and we aren’t just talking peanuts here.

And that is just nuts.

Link Roundup:

Peanut Butter and other Peanut Containing Products Recall List.

Dead rodents, excrement in peanut processor lead to recall – CNN.com.

Peanut company officials spurn Congress’ questions – CNN.com.

Amid peanut scandal, Georgia moves to tighten its food-safety net | csmonitor.com.

Ga. panel OKs testing | ajc.com.

Committee on Energy and Commerce – The Salmonella Outbreak: The Continued Failure to Protect the Food Supply.

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