Tainted Food in the Headlines Again

It looks like the case of melamine contamination is progressing in China. According to this piece from CNN, three people are going to be put to death for willfully contaminating or allowing others to contaminate watered-down milk with melamine, a chemical used in manufacturing of plastics, in order to mask a vitamin deficiency in the diluted milk to government screeners. The chemical has killed six babies in China and made over 300,000 more sick. A BBC broadcast this morning blamed rapid expansion of the Chinese economy with little to no real government regulation to keep up with it, something Premier Wen Jiabao, in a rare public apology, vowed to fix.

On a related front, the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) seems to be nailing down the source of this country’s latest food scare, salmonella-contaminated peanut butter paste, not to be confused with the peanut butter you buy in a jar. That stuff’s fine.

But the paste, used in prepared CPGs from the crackers and peanut butter you find in vending machines to granola bars and cookies, could be contaminated with salmonella, especially if they came from the Peanut Corp. of America plant in Blakely, Ga., according to this piece from the Associated Press reproduced on Fox News’ Web site.

The article indicates investigators found some salmonella in a sample jar of peanut paste made at the facility, and in the crack of a floor and on one wall. A report aired on NBC’s "Today" show on the subject today also suggested that while the peanuts themselves do not naturally attract or develop the disease, it’s possible that machines used to crush the peanuts had been used to handle other foods, such as eggs, which are known to carry the bacteria.

Looks like yet another angle to worry about on the manufacturing end of things. I wonder how many food companies out there right now are checking to see if they have similar multi-purpose machines like this just waiting for another melanine-esque disaster to blow up in their faces.