Peanut company’s chief invokes Fifth

Washington —- Even after Peanut Corp. of America learned its products were tainted with salmonella, it kept shipping them to unsuspecting customers, apparently putting profits ahead of public safety, according to documents and testimony presented at a congressional subcommittee hearing Wednesday.

Company President Stewart Parnell and Sammy Lightsey, manager of the South Georgia plant at the center of one of the biggest food poisoning cases in recent history, refused to answer questions from a House panel, invoking their Fifth Amendment right not to present self-incriminating evidence.

They declined to come into the House hearing room while victims told of their dead loved ones killed by salmonella linked to the company’s peanut paste and other products. After refusing to answer any questions from committee members —- including whether they would even eat any of their own products —- they quickly left the House office building where the hearing was held, refusing to speak to reporters.

The salmonella outbreak traced to the plant in Blakely has sickened 600 people and has been linked to nine deaths. More than 1,800 products have been recalled, and manufacturers of peanut-related products have lost millions of dollars.

E-mails and other documents released by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations indicate the company and its executives knew their products contained salmonella and shipped them out anyway to keep the money flowing.

In one e-mail, Lightsey wrote Parnell and discussed positive salmonella tests on one batch of Peanut Corp.’s products. Parnell gave instructions to nonetheless “turn them loose” after getting a negative test result from another testing company. In another e-mail, Parnell expressed concerns over losing “$$$$$” due to delays in shipment. And in a company-wide e-mail on Jan. 12, Parnell told employees there was no salmonella in its plants —- “we have never found any salmonella at all” —- and accused the news media of “looking for a news story where there currently isn’t one.”

Even in the heat of the nationwide outbreak, Parnell seemed more worried about his company’s profits than with food safety, according to regulators and congressional investigators.

On Jan. 19, Parnell sent an e-mail to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, pleading with the agency to let it continue its business. He wrote that company executives “desperately at least need to turn the raw peanuts on our floor into money.”

U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, a Gainesville Republican, said the company’s actions not only hurt consumers and revealed problems with food safety, but also decimated the peanut industry that is central to Georgia’s economy.

“Right now, peanut farmers are poised to plant this year’s crop,” Deal said. “The uncertainty created by the actions of PCA will cost them millions of dollars.

“We are all outraged,” Deal said.

FDA investigators and the U.S. Justice Department are looking into criminal charges against the company and its principals.

Rep. Phil Gingrey, a Marietta Republican, said company officials were free to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights, but that doesn’t protect them from punishment if they’re found guilty of wrongdoing.

“If you circumvent the law, or merely take advantage of lax oversight, don’t think you have gamed the system forever,” Gingrey said, “because justice will catch up with you, and you will pay.”

People whose relatives had been sickened or had died also appeared before the subcommittee hearing, chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.).

Jeffrey Almer of Savage, Minn., described how his elderly mother, Shirley, survived lung cancer, a brain tumor and other illnesses. She then died from salmonella poisoning on Dec. 21.

“Cancer couldn’t claim her, but peanut butter did,” said Almer, who since has formed a nonprofit food safety advocacy group called Safe Tables Our Priority.

Lou Tousignant of Minneapolis presented a slideshow featuring his late father, Clifford, with his children and grandchildren. A Korean War veteran, Clifford Tousignant earned three Purple Hearts and served his country for 22 years. He died from salmonella poisoning on Jan. 12, shortly after entering a Minnesota nursing home.

Peter Hurley of Wilsonville, Ore., testified how his son, Jacob, 3, began vomiting and having bloody diarrhea in January. Peter and Brandy Hurley took their son to a pediatrician, who told them to give him his favorite food to try to get him to eat again.

Jacob’s favorite food: Austin Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter —- “The very food that we later found was the cause of his poisoning,” Hurley said.

In other testimony, representatives of food testing company J. Leek Associates Inc. said they had found salmonella in Peanut Corp. products in a follow-up test and then alerted plant manager Lightsey about it in early October 2008.

“He paused, said, ‘Uh oh,’ or something to that effect, and then told me he had released the product for shipping,” lab technician Michelle Pronto wrote in response to questions from the congressional committee.

“When I asked if he could get it back, he said it was on a truck headed to Utah and rather than getting it back, he would have the product destroyed somewhere out West,” Pronto wrote.

Staff writer Craig Schneider contributed to this article.

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 Source: U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee
The House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations released documents that showed Peanut Corp. executives were concerned about losing money if shipments were delayed.