How could the peanut scare happen? How could it NOT happen?

Nut’n’Honey

Killer peanut butter. Who saw that coming?

Actually, many food industry professionals did.

Contamination nation

As you’re no doubt aware by now, scores of peanut butter products were recalled last month in the wake of hundreds of salmonella poisoning reports, including eight deaths. So when a website called The Consumerist asked an “industry microbiologist” how this sort of thing could happen, he offered several possible scenarios…

If a lab finds a contaminated sample, the food company can send it to another lab that has less rigorous criteria
If a lab finds a contaminated sample, the food company can send another sample from another part of the batch, hoping for uneven distribution of the contamination
If a lab finds a contaminated sample, the food company can combine the sample with a sample that’s known to be uncontaminated, lowering contamination levels
A food company can purposely mislead a lab with a confusing change of lot numbers
A large food company that requires a high volume of lab work might threaten to use another lab

Unsettling, isn’t it?

But that’s just one part of the picture. And it doesn’t end with peanut butter.

The buck stops…nowhere

If you have seasonal allergies, you’ve probably heard this one: Eat local honey.

My colleague Maryann explains how this concept has helped her overcome some of the woes of spring and summer allergies: “You’re basically building up your system’s defenses against allergens in your environment, since you’re taking it in after the bees have processed it.”

This week, Maryann sent me a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article that might turn you into a big fan of local honey – whether or not you suffer from allergies.

According to a five-month Seattle P-I investigation, more than 60 percent of honey consumed in the U.S. is imported. And about half of the imported honey comes from China. And a large portion of that Chinese honey is mislabeled to give consumers the impression that the honey is produced anywhere but China.

This practice is called “honey laundering.” And besides being deceptive, it can be dangerous because Chinese honey sometimes contains chloramphenicol, an illegal antibiotic with harsh side effects – especially for those who have a sensitivity to the drug.

But here’s the heart of the problem: When chloramphenicol contamination is discovered, honey producers usually send it back to the importer. The FDA is rarely contacted, so unscrupulous importers are free to simply ship the honey to a different producer, hoping the antibiotic won’t be detected the second time around.

An executive for Sue Bee (one of the largest honey packers in the U.S.) told the Seattle P-I that chloramphenicol is detected in honey about once a month. When found, it’s sent back to the importer. Bill Allibone, president of Sue Bee, explains that the FDA isn’t informed because the company never actually takes ownership of the honey.

Allibone: “We’re assuming that when we reject a load of honey, they’ll return it to the people they purchased it from.” When Seattle P-I asked Allibone if his company had an obligation to contact the FDA to help protect public health, he said, “It’s just not our honey.”

I don’t know what’s more frightening – the “not my problem” attitude, or the fact that the FDA isn’t even equipped to adequately respond to reports about contaminated honey, peanut butter, and however many other contaminations we haven’t heard about yet.

Sources:
“How Unscrupulous Food Manufacturers Manipulate Lab Tests” Chris Walters, The Consumerist, 1/29/09, consumerist.com
“Honey Laundering: Tainted Product Still Slips Easily into U.S.” Andres Schneider, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, seattlepi.nwsource.com