The Worst Supply Chain in the USA?

[David Blanchard]

It's only April, but far and away the early leader in the unofficial voting for the country's worst supply chain of 2009 is Peanut Corp. of America. Every revelation about this company's operations is an embarrassment. As this USA Today article explains, PCA's supply chain is the poster child for everything that's gone wrong with the food safety system in the country.

But then again, reading between the lines, this article also provides plenty of compelling reasons why the U.S. Government's Food & Drug Administration places a very close second to PCA for the designation of the worst supply chain in America. If you check out the timeline on the whole PCA debacle, it becomes clear it's not even a matter of which party is in the White House or which party controls Congress -- the FDA's policies of looking the other way when it comes to PCA date back to the Clinton Administration, and apparently they kept looking elsewhere during the GWB years.

In short, this is a systemic mess.

That being said, there could be other, equally worthy choices for the title of the country's worst supply chain. Feel free to nominate any company you feel out-performs PCA in their application of worst practices.

[AMADEUS]

What has never been explained is the failure of the American Institute of Baking in this mess. Kellog hire them to inspect this plant and they provided a good report.Yet they are supposed to be a fearsome independent watchdog? How did they slip up? Nestle sent their own inspectors who twice rejected this plant. Then Kellog said wee can't inspect all our suppliers and called for more Government inspections. So we have an Industry Watchdog failing, a huge company failing and then trying to weasel out of it's job and pass the buck to the government and a shining example. Buy Nestle products don't buy Kellogs

[wesdavidson]

Peanuts have been traditionally treated like grain, beans, peas, potatoes, sugar beets or rice. If elevators were full the excess was dumped in heaps on the ground until it could be handled.

The grain leaving a combine was pretty clean, just grain, chaff, weed seeds and a few grasshoppers. As it moves through the system it picks up rocks, dirt, spoilage, mold, dead mice, birds etc. There was an allowance by weight for "dirt". Some elevators, if the grain was too clean would add a dump of dirt to make weight. It got so bad in the 70's that foreign governments would segregate US grain. Our standards were lower than world standards.

Folks like Kellogs had to clean what they bought and throw a good percentage back into the feedlot market. - yes, cattle do convert inedible products to delicious steak. I would love to see a vegan confronted with a nice dish of foxtail, fanning mill cleanings, sagebrush, and corn silage.

In the 90's the beer (led by Coors) and french fry companies led the way by contracting growers who would grow crops to "spec". "Contract " grain, hogs and spuds became the standard by 2000. Contract crops must meet cleanliness standards or you have to buy equal product to fill the contract. The flip side is the farmers who grow to contracts generally enjoy good steady prices that allow them to make good livings.

Non contract crop standards are still about the same or worse than the '70s. Prices have dipped as low as 50 cents a bushel for wheat and soared to $20 a bushel on the margins, depending on the year.. Depends on what you do with the grain. For Ethanol fuel production condition matters little, the cheaper the feedstock the better. Livestock feed is one step up. Uncooked foodstuffs for human consumption calls for a different level. -One that has largely not been addressed up to now.

Clearly looking at it, if you were a food processor, you would contract all you thought you would need, get the best product, grown your way.

Still no excuse for peanut corp.

hmmm, enjoy that bagel!

[112inky]

occationally this will happen county like usa