Sam, were there pay-offs?

[Coolwater]

Do you think the inspectors from the health department were bribed to ignore what was going on at the peanut products plant?

[EvanStar4506]

I think the inspectors were too lenient. There could have been bribe money involved. The investigation should uncover that much.
They gave the owner notices and he probably said, "Yeah, I'll take care of it."
and then ignored it. Then with the follow-up, same merry-go-round. If there is no consequesnce, the owner has no cause to clean up the place. If he was shut down right away and slapped with a BIG fine, it might have been different. :(

[Sam]

You could almost bet the ranch there was!! I told you guys earlier about the corruption and how health and labor laws were ignored here.
I was present a few times a few years back when one of the restaurant owners dropped off her bribe money to the local health inspector. $50.00 a month was all it took! They began cracking down about two years ago by writing them up for it. They can have numerous violations though and still keep operating. Labor is not trained either.
You didn't hear of these things happening years ago because the federal govt. trained and employed health inspectors who were actually on site to oversee things and made random inspections. But the cut backs stopped that. Now those businesses are left to go unchecked. They still do random inspections. But the businesses usually get an annonymous call letting them know the inspector is coming. So most things are covered and hidden from plain site. All health inspectors do is walk around and look. They check for lids on containers, proper temps showing on the refrig and freezer units at that time,rat droppings or roach infestation...Not really much else.
It takes them 15 to 20 minutes. If they can't see it by just walking around then it goes unreported.
Last year two people died from eating contaminated meat products and many were made sick from it.
I myself have reported these things to the CDC in the past. I only got a message saying they recieved my letter and would look into it. BUT they didn't.

[Coolwater]

That's disgusting. In Indiana and Texas, the violations for each restaurant are reported in the papers.

[appeace]

Going from my experience in working the food industry, there are not enough inspectors to competently look into every violation or even all food service businesses. In addition, why would the state want to shut down businesses that are paying lots of state taxes???:rolleyes::eek:

[Coolwater]

Good point. Not only state taxes, but estate taxes.

[Sam]

You are absolutely right Appeace.
States aren't doing their part either for their own selfish reasons.
Food Service owners won't clean up their act because they don't want to have to absorb the costs of product loss or pay for the training and oversight of employees.
You'd probably be shocked if you went through the kitchen area of your favorite restaurants or food production plants and saw what was actually going on in there.

[Littledevil]

Well I will say this. It makes you not want to go out to eat at any restaurant anywhere. We don't go out to eat that much any more. We used to go to this Japanese Steak House all the time. Then it came under new management. We still went until on hubby's birthday, he bit into a piece of glass. Luckily he didn't swollow it or cut himself. We told the manager about it and our dinners were free with a half hearted apology. We didn't go back for almost 2 months and hubby wanted to give them a 2nd chance. He found a hair. We never went back. I wish we had reported them to the health department or made a bigger stink about it at the restaurant. It is now a new restaurant but still japanese. Just thinking about it makes you want to vomit.