CQ Today: Peanut Company Executives Take the 5th
Peanut Company Executives Take the 5thWednesday, February 11, 2009
By: Alicia Sternstein
Executivesof the peanut company blamed for a deadly salmonella outbreak refusedto testify Wednesday at a House committee hearing, citing their rightsto avoid possible self-incrimination.Peanut Company Executives Take the 5thWednesday, February 11, 2009
By: Alicia Sternstein
Executivesof the peanut company blamed for a deadly salmonella outbreak refusedto testify Wednesday at a House committee hearing, citing their rightsto avoid possible self-incrimination.
Their move came as Energy andCommerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman , D-Calif., disclosed internale-mails showing the company was notified last fall by a private labthat its products tested positive for the pathogen.
Waxmandisclosed the e-mails at a hearing convened by his panel's Oversightand Investigations Subcommittee to question Stewart Parnell, presidentof the Peanut Corporation of America, plant manager Sammy Lightsey andfederal officials about the failure to protect the food supply.
On the advice of counsel, however, both Peanut Corporation officialsinvoked their Fifth Amendment rights and refused to testify.
Panel members called for legislation to tighten food safety regulationsin a bid to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
"How many sick kids does it take for us to finally act?" asked DianaDeGette , D-Colo., pressing for passage of her bill (HR 815) toauthorize mandatory recalls of contaminated food products.
Peanut products processed at the corporation's Blakely, Ga., plant havebeen confirmed as the source of the outbreak now tied to eight deaths.The company provided potentially tainted products to manufacturers foruse in hundreds of grocery goods, including crackers, candy and icecream.
"Peanut butter goes well with jelly, but not withsalmonella. We learned once again, with this recall, that mandatoryrecall authority is required," declared Edward J. Markey , D-Mass.
Jan Schakowsky , D-Ill., added, "What I really find amazing is that itwas known by the PCA that their product was tainted with potentiallylife-threatening salmonella and yet was released into the food supplyanyway."
The internal e-mails released by Waxman showed company executives knew of the contamination.
"We received final lab results . . . and we have a positive forsalmonella. . . . We produced 441 cases of this lot and we producedmeal out of the same lot . . . some of this product has been shipped,"plant manager Lightsey said in a Sept. 29 company e-mail to Parnell.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began examining the Blakelyplant on Jan. 9. The first product recall related to the outbreak wasissued on Jan. 10.
On Feb. 9, the FBI announced it is assisting the FDA in an ongoing criminal investigation of the corporation.
Parnell did not want to appear at the hearing, although Lightsey, the plant manager, was willing to attend.
The full committee voted Tuesday to authorize the issuance of a subpoena for Parnell for testimony.
Separately, aides to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J.Leahy , D-Vt., said he is examining whether federal law is adequate topenalize food safety violators. Leahy, who also sits on the SenateAgriculture Committee, said at a Feb. 5 Agriculture oversight hearingon the peanut matter that manufacturers who distribute contaminatedfood should be prosecuted.
As of Sunday, 600 people had been sickened in the salmonella outbreak, and eight had died.
To handle the expanding recall, FDA has created a dedicated onlinedatabase of affected peanut items that consumers can search to see iffoods in their homes are at risk.
Executivesof the peanut company blamed for a deadly salmonella outbreak refusedto testify Wednesday at a House committee hearing, citing their rightsto avoid possible self-incrimination.
Peanut Company Executives Take the 5thWednesday, February 11, 2009
By: Alicia Sternstein
Executivesof the peanut company blamed for a deadly salmonella outbreak refusedto testify Wednesday at a House committee hearing, citing their rightsto avoid possible self-incrimination.
Their move came as Energy andCommerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman , D-Calif., disclosed internale-mails showing the company was notified last fall by a private labthat its products tested positive for the pathogen.
Waxmandisclosed the e-mails at a hearing convened by his panel's Oversightand Investigations Subcommittee to question Stewart Parnell, presidentof the Peanut Corporation of America, plant manager Sammy Lightsey andfederal officials about the failure to protect the food supply.
On the advice of counsel, however, both Peanut Corporation officialsinvoked their Fifth Amendment rights and refused to testify.
Panel members called for legislation to tighten food safety regulationsin a bid to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
"How many sick kids does it take for us to finally act?" asked DianaDeGette , D-Colo., pressing for passage of her bill (HR 815) toauthorize mandatory recalls of contaminated food products.
Peanut products processed at the corporation's Blakely, Ga., plant havebeen confirmed as the source of the outbreak now tied to eight deaths.The company provided potentially tainted products to manufacturers foruse in hundreds of grocery goods, including crackers, candy and icecream.
"Peanut butter goes well with jelly, but not withsalmonella. We learned once again, with this recall, that mandatoryrecall authority is required," declared Edward J. Markey , D-Mass.
Jan Schakowsky , D-Ill., added, "What I really find amazing is that itwas known by the PCA that their product was tainted with potentiallylife-threatening salmonella and yet was released into the food supplyanyway."
The internal e-mails released by Waxman showed company executives knew of the contamination.
"We received final lab results . . . and we have a positive forsalmonella. . . . We produced 441 cases of this lot and we producedmeal out of the same lot . . . some of this product has been shipped,"plant manager Lightsey said in a Sept. 29 company e-mail to Parnell.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began examining the Blakelyplant on Jan. 9. The first product recall related to the outbreak wasissued on Jan. 10.
On Feb. 9, the FBI announced it is assisting the FDA in an ongoing criminal investigation of the corporation.
Parnell did not want to appear at the hearing, although Lightsey, the plant manager, was willing to attend.
The full committee voted Tuesday to authorize the issuance of a subpoena for Parnell for testimony.
Separately, aides to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J.Leahy , D-Vt., said he is examining whether federal law is adequate topenalize food safety violators. Leahy, who also sits on the SenateAgriculture Committee, said at a Feb. 5 Agriculture oversight hearingon the peanut matter that manufacturers who distribute contaminatedfood should be prosecuted.
As of Sunday, 600 people had been sickened in the salmonella outbreak, and eight had died.
To handle the expanding recall, FDA has created a dedicated onlinedatabase of affected peanut items that consumers can search to see iffoods in their homes are at risk.