Salmonella occurs when, ahem, icky fecal matter comes into contact with something that humans eventually end up ingesting. That could be a plant, or an animal, or in this case…peanuts.
How the heck does crap come in contact with peanuts, you might wonder?
Over at the Accidental Hedonnist blog, there’s a very good summary of the factory conditions of certain peanut plants, and what one factory boss owner (!!) supposedly knew about the tainted nuts. Summary? He was in on it but still authorized shipping of the bad PB!
“The owner of a peanut company urged his workers to ship tainted products after receiving test results identifying salmonella, imploring employees to “turn the raw peanuts on our floor into money,” according to internal company e-mails disclosed Wednesday by a House committee.” – Referenced in an article by Talking Points Memo.
Oh, and how fecal matter and peanuts mix? If your factory’s roof is leaking, and a lot of bird crap is on your roof, well what you have leaking into your factory is … well, bird crap soup!
No wonder one of my co-workers, Tony, will never eat canned tomatoes or tomato paste. Growing up in Central California, he’d worked in a tomato packing plant and…well….I digress. If you want to read more about that, let me know in the comments.
