In an article in “The Washington Post’ dated October 22, 2010, the reporter reveals that although many food companies use auditors to make sure their food is safe, many auditors do a bad job because they are afraid of not getting any more business from the food company if the auditor comes back with an adverse finding. The food industry relies on private-sector auditors because  the federal government does not have adequate staff to inspect the food industry’s 150,000 domestic plants or the 250,000 facilities overseas. Many food processing companies continue to see food safety as an expense to be minimized rather than protecting the health of its customers. This often results in picking the least expensive rather than the best auditor. In fact, many of the companies caught up in the recent outbreaks of salmonella  and peanut products have gotten high marks from their private auditors. The bottom line is that no-one, including the corporations that use them, should use these third-party audits as a means of avoiding rigorous and thorough checking, whether in-house or not,  for the safety of foods put out into the marketplace.