CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
– HEALTH
Feb. 11, 2009 – 12:51 p.m.
Peanut Company Officials Invoke Fifth Amendment Rights at Hearing
By Aliya Sternstein, CQ Staff
Officials of the peanut company blamed for a deadly salmonella outbreak refused to testify Wednesday at a House committee hearing, citing their rights to avoid possible self-incrimination.
Their move came as Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry A. Waxman , D‑Calif., disclosed e‑mails showing the company was notified in the fall by a private lab that its products tested positive for the pathogen.
Waxman disclosed the e-mails at a hearing convened by his panel’s Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee to question Stewart Parnell, president of the Peanut Corp. of America, plant manager Sammy Lightsey and federal officials about the failure to protect the food supply.
On the advice of counsel, however, both Peanut Corp. officials invoked their Fifth Amendment rights.
Panel members called for legislation to tighten food safety regulations. “How many sick kids does it take for us to finally act?” asked Diana DeGette , D-Colo., pressing for passage of her bill (
Peanut products processed at the corporation’s Blakely, Ga., plant have been confirmed as the source of the outbreak. The company provided potentially tainted products to manufacturers for use in hundreds of grocery goods, including crackers, candy and ice cream. As of Feb. 8, 600 people had been sickened and eight died.
“We learned once again, with this recall, that mandatory recall authority is required,” said Edward J. Markey , D-Mass.
Jan Schakowsky , D-Ill., added, “What I really find amazing is that it was known by the PCA that their product was tainted with potentially life-threatening salmonella and yet was released into the food supply anyway.”
The internal e-mails released by Waxman showed company executives knew of the contamination.
“We received final lab results . . . and we have a positive for salmonella. . . . We produced 441 cases of this lot and we produced meal out of the same lot. . . . Some of this product has been shipped,” Lightsey wrote in a Sept. 29 e-mail to Parnell.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began examining the Blakely plant Jan. 9. The first product recall related to the outbreak was issued Jan. 10.
On Feb. 9, the FBI announced it would assist the FDA in an ongoing criminal investigation of the corporation.
The Energy and Commerce Committee voted Feb. 10 to authorize the issuance of a subpoena for Parnell for testimony. Lightsey attended the subcommittee hearing voluntarily but refused to testify.
Separately, aides to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy , D-Vt., said he is examining whether federal law adequately penalizes food safety violators.
“I’d like to see some people go to jail,” Leahy said at a Feb. 5 hearing on the salmonella outbreak before the Agriculture Committee, of which he is a member. “I don’t really care what kind of a fine is put on a company that ignored this. . . . A fine is the cost of doing business. When somebody thinks they’re going to go to jail if they don’t report something, report it adequately and clean it up, that’s an entirely different thing.”
To handle the expanding recall, the FDA has created an online database of affected peanut items that consumers can search to see if food in their homes is at risk.
Comments
In the 1950's, we had "Fifth Amendment Communists" refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Today, we have "Fifth-Amendment Capitalists" refusing to testify before the Senate Agriculture Committee! This leads one to wonder which was the greater threat to the health, safety and welfare of the American public! Which was more likely to spread deadly disease, sicken and kill American citizens?
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