The New York Times reports that a report by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) says that “most food manufacturers and distributors cannot identify the suppliers or recipients of their products despite federal rules that require them to do so,” and that “a quarter of the food facilities contacted by investigators as part of the study were not even aware that they were supposed to be able to trace their suppliers.”

The study comes on the heels of a salmonella outbreak connected to a factory operated by Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) in Georgia, and that has been blamed for almost 700 people getting sick and the deaths of nine. There have been hundreds of product recalls because of this outbreak, with many manufacturers unaware of where their peanuts were coming from and of the apparent negligence that informed the conditions at PCA’s facilities.

According to the story, the US Inspector General has “recommended that the F.D.A. seek greater authority from Congress to require and ensure that food facilities maintain adequate records. In an official response in the report, the agency said that it largely agreed with the recommendations.”

KC's View: I understand that there will be some resistance to new requirements that companies keep exhaustive records of the products and ingredients they use, but it seems to me that companies have absolutely no choice at this point. The scenarios just keep getting worse and worse, and customers are going demand it.

Go back to the “Mommy Bloggers” panel that took place at the IRI Summit earlier this week, and that was described in detail here on MNB. Those women wanted total transparency from the retailers and manufacturers with which they do business…and they were making that transparency a condition of putting trust in those companies.

The technology exists for this kind of transparency and traceability to exist. All that is lacking, in certain quarters, is the will.

For consumers, that won’t be an excuse.