A Rotten Purchase: Why Food Cos. Didn't Know They Bought Bad Peanuts

March 19, 2009— -- Dead rats, roaches, mice and mold. As the list of 3,000-plus tainted peanut products shoppers shouldn't buy continues to grow, lawmakers today took a most unappetizing look at peanut plants linked to the ongoing salmonella outbreak.

Watch "World News With Charles Gibson" tonight at 6:30 ET for the full report.

"Mold was observed growing on the ceiling and walls," said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee.

"These are rodents that are around the air intake," said Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore.

"How is it possible that a company that looks like this -- with pictures of rodents -- to get an award like this, where they're called superior?" asked Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Why the companies that bought peanuts from the Peanut Corporation of America didn't know anything was rotten in the Georgia and Texas plants was the focus of today's hearing on Capitol Hill.

Executives for three of the companies that had to recall products said they didn't do their own inspections of the plant and instead relied partly on assurances from the peanut company on the food's safety. They also relied on third-party audits of the plants, audits that turned up no major problems.

"First and foremost, we deeply regret that the recent salmonella recall situation occurred and that it involved Kellogg products," Kellogg CEO David Mackay said. "We apologize to our customers and consumers, especially those who have become ill from one of our products."

Meanwhile, Michael Taylor, research professor at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, said food companies are partly to blame for the fiasco.

"If you put your label on a food product and sell it to consumers, you are responsible for the safety of that product," Taylor, a former government food safety official at the Food and Drug Administration, told ABC News today.

"You cannot point the finger at somebody else."

The hearing highlighted one company in particular, Switzerland-based Nestle, that did send its own inspectors. In doing so, Nestle found rodent droppings, beetles and dead insects. At that point, the company refused to do business with the peanut company.