Congress Seeks Answers in Salmonella Outbreak; PCA President Takes the Fifth

A subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee conducted a hearing February 11, 2009, to hear from victims, regulators
and the individuals who own and operate the Georgia peanut processing facility responsible for the latest Salmonella outbreak. Titled, “The Salmonella Outbreak: The Continued Failure to Protect the Food Supply,” the hearing gave congressmen the opportunity to question Stewart Parnell who owns the Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) about the company’s practice of shipping contaminated product to food processors even after it had tested positive for Salmonella. Parnell and the man who managed the plant invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege and refused to answer questions, including whether they would eat the recalled products, which now number in excess of 1,800 items.

The outbreak has reportedly sickened more than 600 in the United States and Canada, led to a suspected nine deaths and launched at least four personal injury lawsuits to date. Most damning to the company are emails released during the congressional hearing, apparently revealing Parnell’s disregard for health for the sake of profits. The owners of the labs in which PCA products tested positive for Salmonella testified that it is not unusual for food companies to re-test their products once a positive result is found, as PCA did, but other companies never ship the products to customers after a positive test is reported. According to a news source, a Georgia legislative committee has just approved a law that would require food manufacturers to inform state inspectors within 24 hours if internal tests reveal that products are
tainted, but it is apparently the only state that may require food companies to share internal data.

Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Director Stephen Sundlof, who testified before the House committee, apparently did not take a firm position on whether private testing labs should be required to share their results with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but he did call for agency authority to access food records during routine inspections and to issue preventive controls for high-risk foods. A Georgia food inspector, who also provided testimony, noted that state inspections revealed sanitation problems at the PCA facility in 2007 and 2008, but they were minor. He responded to critics of the state’s inspection system, saying, “We consider ourselves as having a good regulatory
system here.” The state apparently has 60 inspectors who oversee 16,000 food plants and did not find, during routine three-hour inspections, the flaws recently identified by FDA inspectors who spent 14 days investigating the Georgia plant.

According to new information learned since the FDA released its inspection report, of the 12 occasions in 2007 and 2008 on which PCA peanut products tested positive for Salmonella, PCA (i) shipped product five times before the positive test results were received, (ii) had products re-tested six times and twice shipped product to customers before negative re-test results were received, and (iii) responded to a positive test result “by sending additional samples from the same lot to two different laboratories to be retested. PCA received one positive
result and one negative result. According to FDA, PCA had shipped this product to its customers before the initial positive result was received.”

While Congress is currently occupied with U.S. economic issues and no action has yet been taken on a number of new food-safety bills, influential members have reportedly pledged to make major changes in the nation’s food protection system. Representative Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), who introduced two bills that would split the food oversight function away from the FDA’s purview over food and drugs, was quoted as saying to the outbreak’s victims and survivors, “I’ll just make this commitment to you: We’re going to do this, and we’re going to do this in your loved ones’ memories.” See House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Staff
Memorandum, February 9, 2009; The Wall Street Journal, February 10, 2009; CQ.com and Associated Press, February 11, 2009; The New York Times, and MSNBC.com, February 12, 2009.