Nearly two years before a deadly listeria outbreak linked to recalled deli meat, inspectors at a Virginia Boar’s Head plant detailed poor physical conditions that “could pose an imminent threat,” documents from the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service show.
I work at a flavor company, what we make will eventually be like 0.5% max of a finished food/beverage and almost all of it has zero risk of microbial contamination (due to formulation) before another company adds it to their product. If our plant had like 10% of the issues that Boar's Head has, we would have been shut down immediately by the FDA. I can't even begin to imagine how many people were paid off for this to go on for so long.
I think the main reason gross negligence doesn't happen more often in the US is lawsuits and PR nightmares. To avoid those things - companies do a bare minimum. As far as I can tell - regulators seem to do fuck all except issue fines and the law for crimes such as these is a joke.
I work at a flavor company, what we make will eventually be like 0.5% max of a finished food/beverage and almost all of it has zero risk of microbial contamination (due to formulation) before another company adds it to their product. If our plant had like 10% of the issues that Boar's Head has, we would have been shut down immediately by the FDA. I can't even begin to imagine how many people were paid off for this to go on for so long.
I think the main reason gross negligence doesn't happen more often in the US is lawsuits and PR nightmares. To avoid those things - companies do a bare minimum. As far as I can tell - regulators seem to do fuck all except issue fines and the law for crimes such as these is a joke.