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Putting this here because its potential effect on the audit/quality world could be broad, possibly extending across all industries in which third party auditors review systems and operations.
A melon farm changed their wash system, eliminating a chlorinated clean-water wash. A large number of consumers in 28 states were sickened, 147 were hospitalized and 33 died, from contaminated melons. The farm went bankrupt. The farm owners are under indictment, each facing six years in prison and 1.5 million dollars in fines, plus likely tens of millions of dollars of civil liability. The farm owners are sueing their prior food safety auditing firm for not determining that the change to the wash system was not safe, even though (I gather) the change was identified to the auditor, and instead giving them a "superior" audit report.
http://www.manufacturing.net/news/2013/10/farmers-tied-to-outbreak-sue-auditor?et_cid=3547207&et_rid=54684915&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.manufacturing.net%2fnews%2f2013%2f10%2ffarmers-tied-to-outbreak-sue-auditor
A melon farm changed their wash system, eliminating a chlorinated clean-water wash. A large number of consumers in 28 states were sickened, 147 were hospitalized and 33 died, from contaminated melons. The farm went bankrupt. The farm owners are under indictment, each facing six years in prison and 1.5 million dollars in fines, plus likely tens of millions of dollars of civil liability. The farm owners are sueing their prior food safety auditing firm for not determining that the change to the wash system was not safe, even though (I gather) the change was identified to the auditor, and instead giving them a "superior" audit report.
http://www.manufacturing.net/news/2013/10/farmers-tied-to-outbreak-sue-auditor?et_cid=3547207&et_rid=54684915&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.manufacturing.net%2fnews%2f2013%2f10%2ffarmers-tied-to-outbreak-sue-auditor