According to the article, “Food Problems Elude Private Inspectors” (NYT, March 6, 2009), “An examination of the largest food poisoning outbreaks in recent years — in products as varied as spinach, pet food, and a children’s snack, Veggie Booty — show that auditors failed to detect problems at plants whose contaminated products later sickened consumers.” The article adds that the F.D.A. “has proposed a voluntary certification program that would toughen audit standards and alert federal authorities of problems — an idea that has met stiff resistance from the food industry.” The full text of the article is available here.