Peanut Co. owner urged shipping tainted products

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David Edwards
Published: Wednesday February 11, 2009

Peanut Co. owner urged shipping tainted products

Executives for Peanut Corporation of America refused to testify before a Congressional panel today. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, asked owner Stewart Parnell if he would be willing to eat his own products.

"This container is full of products that less than a month ago, people were consuming thinking it was fine to eat," asked Walden while holding up a container of Peanut Corporation products. "And one of the things I'm going to do today is ask Mr. Parnell from Peanut Corporation of America if he'd like to open this and sample some of the products that he didn't think were a problem to send out to the rest of us to eat."

Parnell refused to testify, invoking his right not to incriminate himself.

The Congressional Panel also reviewed emails showing Parnell urged workers to ship peanut products even after test results indicated salmonella contamination. The emails suggested that Parnell was more concerned about sales revenue.

"The company e-mails obtained by a House committee show Peanut Corp. of America owner Stewart Parnell ordered the shipments tainted with the bacteria because he was worried about lost sales," the AP reports.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Peanut_exe..._0211.html

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February 08, 2009
isaac.blogs.com

The fox was guarding the peanuthouse

The salmonella outbreak, tied to contaminated peanut products from a Georgia processing plant owned by Peanut Corporation of America, has produced one delicious irony.  In 2005, the Bush administration appointed the owner and president of the company, a man from Lynchburg, Virginia named Stewart Parnell, to serve on the Peanut Standards Board.  The Peanut Standards Board is part of the Department of Agriculture that advises the USDA on how to grade and classify peanuts.  It also helps set quality-control and safe-handling standards for peanuts.  Mr. Parnell must have done well, because the Bush administration reappointed him in 2008 to serve another three-year term.  Things work differently in the current administration; Tom Vilsack, the new Secretary of Agriculture, removed Mr. Parnell from the Board on Thursday, and banned his company from receiving any more federal contracts.

The company's website, which used to describe the company's history and included quotations from Mr. Parnell, has been revamped.  As of this morning it includes only the press releases about the contamination and the recall.  Actually it includes one more practical bit of information: the name and address of the company's agent for service of process in Georgia -- the address where, if you are suing the company, you're to send the summons and complaint.

http://isaac.blogs.com/isaac_laquedem/