Whining About Regulation? Think Peanut Butter

One of the perpetual C-Suite bug-a-boos is excessive regulation.

If only the government would get off of our backs, many say, even on Bnet blogs. Regulation stifles our creativity. It makes the magic of the market go away. Unregulated, boats will right themselves. And, taking a page out of Ayn Rand, some claim that it is perfectly OK to act in your self interest because in the end it helps everybody out.

Well, tell that to people who eat peanut butter.

According to The Washington Post, Peanut Corporation of America shipped contaminated peanut butter from a plant in Georgia 12 times in the past two years. The firm's plant has been linked to a recent outbreak of salmonella that has killed eight people and sickened 500 in 43 states across the country.

Based in Lynchburg, Va., the Peanut Corporation of America doesn't make the types of peanut butter found on grocery shelves. Instead, it sells its product to foodmakers such as Kellogg and Little Debbie which put in their products.

Federal investigators have found four strains of salmonella at the Georgia plant. One strain was found next to a washroom, which isn't surprising since salmonella is spread by animal feces. It seems possible that some plant workers didn't wash their hands thoroughly as instructed after using the toilet.

The firm isn't required to share internal testing results for salmonella with regulators. But there sems to be a problem with the lack of regulation. The Food and Drug Admininistration is tasked with plant inspections but in this case gve the job to Georgia state authorities. How come? FDA says it just doesn't have enough regulators to go around.

State regulators inspected the plant most recently in October. Lo and behold, that's exactly when the contaminated batches of peanut butter this time around were being produced. But the Georgia regulators somehow didn't test for salmonella. State authorities are investigating.

So, fair members of the business community. Next time you want to bitch about all that horrible regulation, you might want to think of the people dead or sickened in this case. Half of them were children. They could be yours.