Veggie Booty suppliers?

Robert’s American Gourmet Inc.’s  is blaming Chinese seasoning suppliers for the Salmonella Wandsworth contamination in their Veggie Booty pirate snacks.
The company reports that there was a positive sample of Salmonella Wandsworth found in the seasoning, though no reports from health officials have confirmed this yet.  Newsday is reporting that yesterday afternoon the great lab folks at the Minnesota Department of Ag reported finding Salmonella in the snack product, but didn’t suggest the source.

Reprints of the Washington Post story this morning suggest that the Chinese ingredients are to blame.  But without the data, maybe this is just a convenient shifting of the problem to a country that has been in the news a lot lately. 

The shift of blame to suppliers has happened recently with a ground beef recall as well — both of these examples arise from processors who should know what their input suppliers do for food safety as part of HACCP prerequisite plans.

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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is a professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.