Last summer, the 10News I-Team went undercover and found two brands of toothpaste tubes laced with a potent poison known as diethylene glycol at a store in Linda Vista.

The chemical -- also called DEG -- is a prime ingredient in anti-freeze. Exposure to this chemical could cause kidney failure or even death, experts said.

It turned out the I-Team was not the only party checking out Joe's 99 Cent Store on that August day.

Another visitor was a health inspector from the County of San Diego's Department of Environmental Health. The purpose of their visit was to make sure the shopkeeper had cleared his shelf of recalled chili.

So, why didn't they pull the toothpaste?

"We just deal with the food items, just the food items. It is part of our charge as the environmental health program," said Jack Miller, Asst. Dir., County Dept. of Environmental Health.

It is not his job, Miller said, because toothpaste is considered a health product.

"I don't know if there's anybody out there that does that kind of scanning for recalled products," added Miller.

It makes you wonder, just who is watching this store? How did the toothpaste end up on the shelves, and is anyone protecting consumers?

The owner of the store is Yoram Cohen. The I-Team found the recalled toothpaste in his store and one run by his brother on El Cajon Boulevard. During the I-Tean's first visit, Cohen had assualted photojournalist Michael Gonzales.

He pushed and shoved Gonzales, slamming the camera hard. He was angry because the I-Team wanted to know why the recalled toothpaste was on his shelves for sale.

But in order to find out who was responsible, the I-Team needed Cohen's cooperation to track the toothpaste.

Gonzales wanted to help solve this mystery, so he agreed not to press charges and Cohen, in turn, agreed to sit down and help the I-Team -- up to a point.

"You saw how I was reacting. I didn't know nothing about it until you came," Cohen told the I-Team.

Cohen sticks to his story. He said neither the Food and Drug Administration, who issued the recall, nor did the distributor contact him.

"I didn't know. I mean, I know about the chili recall at the time. I didn't know about the toothpaste," Cohen said.

However, Cohen did not tell the I-Team who shipped him the toothpaste, he said it would ruin his relationship with one of his distrubutors. So, the I-Team had to figure out where it came from and who didn't do their job to notify stores of the recall.

The I-Team tried contacting the FDA, but they would not help. They said the list of distributors of the toothpaste is "proprietary information."

The I-Team did find that some of the bad toothpaste was shipped to Charleston, S.C., where U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 1,400 tubes.

Still, the I-Team didn't know where this toothpaste was origininating from.

With some Internet detective work, the I-Team tracked the manufacturer to China. It is a company called Goldcredit International Enterprises.

An I-Team researcher, who speaks Chinese, questions the business manager of the factory.

The manager said: "Goldcredit found out about the recall through news sources first…"

"… The company has temporarily stopped exporting toothpastes to the U.S."

"… (The company) immediately alerted their customers on their Web site."

The company's customers include the distributor the I-Team is looking for. A late break in the investigation, as a source provided the I-Team with a confidential letter from the West Coast office of the FDA addressed to the distributor and signed by the FDA's district director.

The I-Team tracked the distributor to a company in Vernon, an industrial part of Los Angeles County.

After the toothpaste left the manufacturing company in China, the products arrived at the docks of a company in Vernon, an industrial part of Los Angeles County.

Selective Imports Corporation sells many products, among them health and beauty aides -- including toothpaste.

I-Team reporter Jacqui Nguyen asked the company's president and owner, Fred Nazarian, "So, share with me: You said you notified everyone. Is that correct?"

Nazarian responded, "Yes."

He denied selling the toothpaste to Cohen's store.

Nguyen continued, "Why are you telling me then that you have no knowledge?"

When shown the confidential letter sent to his office by the FDA, Nazarian said, "There may be a person missing from the list which I was not aware of."

Nazarian promised he is out of the business of importing toothpaste from China.

Nazarian said it was possible his vice president never told him about the recall.

He promised he is getting out of the business of importing toothpaste from China.

"We have stopped importing. We have contacted our supplier," he said.

He also said he has discontinued selling the toothpaste.

It was not easy figuring out who was responsible for a bad product appearing on store shelves; just as bad, which agency will protect American consumers.

A proposal that will give the FDA more power and authority to make mandatory recalls when it sees a problem is in the works.