Food For Thought 2.17.09

"The burden is on the company to make sure they are complying with any local, state and federal regulations that apply to food manufacturing. Naturally, that's not reassuring to the public. But we don't have people driving up and down roads looking for places like this." (Doug McBride of the Texas Department of State Health Services, speaking about food inspection failures after shutting down the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Plainview, as quoted by Dallas Morning News writers Dave Michaels and Sherry Jacobson. Essentially, food inspection has suffered after decades of small government and privatization mania. Only 42 state inspectors are available to monitor 17,000 food manufacturers in the state.)