February 11, 2009 -- EHA Consulting Group, which has over 25 years of experience providing food safety consulting, released comments today about the qualifications and competencies of food safety auditors.
The potential for under-qualified and lack of third party audits by many of the processors who purchased the recently recalled Salmonella contaminated peanut butter and peanut product may have had an impact on the number of cases of Salmonellosis and deaths according to EHA's President, Dr. Melvin N. Kramer.
Salmonella typhimurium has been reported in 600 cases across 44 states and Canada, and attributed to peanut butter incorporated into a plethora of food products. These cases have resulted in eight deaths. This outbreak is an embarrassment to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), state regulators in Georgia, and industry.