Food industry safety inspections challenged

WASHINGTON -- The food industry's self-policing system failed to catch filthy conditions at a peanut processing plant blamed for a nationwide salmonella outbreak, lawmakers said Thursday.

The House Energy and Commerce investigations subcommittee released new documents and pictures on Thursday that attested to long-standing sanitary problems at facilities owned by Lynchburg, Va.-based Peanut Corp. of America. The company is at the center of a nationwide outbreak that has sickened nearly 700 people and is being blamed for at least nine deaths.

The outbreak was traced to a Peanut Corp. company facility in Georgia. Later, another Peanut Corp. plant in Texas also was found to have serious problems. Peanut Corp. is under criminal investigation.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the investigations subcommittee, questioned how dozens of food companies that bought peanut paste and other ingredients from Peanut Corp. failed to pick up the problems. Part of the reason, Stupak said, is that they relied on safety audits by inspectors who were hired by Peanut Corp.

"There is an obvious and inherent conflict of interest when an auditor works for the same supplier it is evaluating," said Stupak, calling it a "cozy relationship." Peanut Corp.'s private inspector, a company called AIB, awarded it a certificate of achievement in 2008 for "superior" quality at the Texas plant.

At least one food company that used its own auditors, Nestle, decided not to do business with Peanut Corp.

The committee released a 2002 inspection report from Nestle. "They found that the place was filthy," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Lawmakers have introduced legislation to take food safety oversight away from the Food and Drug Administration and give it to a new agency with stronger legal powers and more funding.

Thursday's hearing came as a major food company joins consumer groups in saying the U.S. food safety system is broken.