Labs accused of helping food importers beat FDA

A congressional committee is investigating whether some private U.S. laboratories were instructed to withhold samples of tainted food so that importers could get their goods into the U.S. In a May 1 letter to ...

[HenryBrown]

What do expect from a country as corrupt as the USA!! Money decides everything in this country! You, your family's well being, take a second seat to money and greed. Don't trust the government...remember how they handled the 2000 election joke in Florida...

[Patrick]

I am with Henry on this.... what uneducated or willfully ignorant Americans do not know, want to know or just do not understand is causing a huge negative ripple in every area of our life. This is a shameful embarrassment to a once respected country....

[HankB]

Having the companies pay for the tests seems like a pretty cleat conflict of interest, no?

[Kudos]

Kudos to
"Amir Jalaeikhoo, president of one lab that did comply, Imperial Private Laboratories Inc. of Miami, said that his firm reports negative test results to the FDA. Imperial mostly tests for pesticides in produce imported from Central and South America.
"Sometimes we lose clients because our standard operating procedure is that basically if something is ... in violation, we submit it," he said. "Some importers don't like that policy."

[Mark Winshel]

Unfortunately just about anything, and including "analysis" and the results of a "study," is for sale to those willing to pay a lightly disguised bribe, er, excuse me, I mean a so called "consultation fee."

The so called independent auditors and accountants who for years took the position that such organizations as Enron were legitimate proved that.

The professional pathological liars and common criminals hiding behind law licenses who in exchange for a fee took the position that Hewlett Packard's "pretexting" was legal, and was not just a new name for the imprisonable felonies of wire fraud and telephone fraud, proved that.

When Robert Bennett, and who was one of Bill Clinton's extremely high paid attorneys in the Monica Lewinsky situation, under penalty of perjury swore to a judge that he had examined the evidence in the case and that sex had not taken place in any form whatsoever, he again proved that "expert" opinions and "analysis" are for sale to anyone with enough money to buy lies and garbage pretending to be "expert" opinion and "expert" analysis.

And probably at least a third of the most expensive "antiques" and "great original art" is really nothing more than cheap garbage that an appraiser in exchange for a fee is willing to pretend is great, original, and valuable.

In other words, every day our society becomes based more and more on nothing more than lies, fraud, charades, and play acting.

[DrD]

Hey folks, word of warning...this also occurs within the USDA/FSIS. By this I mean, the companies that produce meat and poultry run lab tests on samples of their product, and if they come up positive for bacteria like E. coli or Salmonella, they are not required to alert FSIS nor are they required to withhold their product. A glaring example is the Con Agra debacle several years ago. This practice also occurs daily in poultry plants. We really need one food safety agency that protects the consumer, not industry.

[Old Soul]

I just wish I could say I'm shocked.

[Erich]

That familiarity, Acheson said, reduces the possibility that importing companies "lab shop" until they get positive test results. In those instances, he said, "Our guys would probably smell a rat."