Peanut Butter Crime

The Washington post reports that the FDA has shut down production at the Peanut Corporation of America, the Georgia-based company linked to the recent outbreak of salmonella caused by tainted peanut butter products. According to the FDA, the company

found salmonella in internal tests a dozen times in 2007 and 2008 but sold the products anyway, sometimes after getting a negative finding from a different laboratory.

There are, in my opinion, all kinds of frivolous lawsuits against companies for product defects that were clearly accidental, or simply unavoidable because of the scale of product distribution -- I'm thinking particularly of lawsuits against drug companies. But this is a different case. If the FDA is correct, criminal charges should be filed against those responsible for authorizing the sale of known contaminated products. Lawsuits aren't enough.