Egg Salmonella Information Sought by Congress For Committee's Investigation
.jpg)
A pair of powerful congressman want egg Salmonella information straight from Austin "Jack'' DeCoster, the owner of the Iowa egg company that federal investigators have associated with a multi-state outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis.
DeCoster was mailed a letter Tuesday from Representatives Henry Waxman of California and Bart Stupak of Michigan, leaders of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. They have invited DeCoster and the president of Hillandale Farms of Iowa to provide egg Salmonella information to the committee at a public hearing next week. The letter indicates that Wright County Egg tested positive for Salmonella hundreds of times in the past two years.
"When you testify before the committee, we ask that you come prepared to explain why your facilities tested potentially positive for Salmonella Enteritidis contamination on so many occasions, what steps you took to address the contamination identified in these test results, and whether you shared these results with FDA or other federal or state food safety officials," Waxman and Stupak wrote.
The letter to DeCoster indicated that environmental sample reports between 2008 and 2010 found 426 positive results for Salmonella, including 73 samples that were potentially positive for Salmonella Enteritidis, the same strain that has sickened more than 1,500 people across the country.
The outbreak started in May, peaked in July and has continued into September. The recall of 550 million eggs by Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms happened in mid-August. Meanwhile, victims of the outbreak are continuing to contact law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A., for egg litigation and compensation for medical expense, lost wages, travel, pain and other harms.
Our firm filed an egg lawsuit late last month in Minnesota on behalf of a woman who was sickened in the Mi Rancho restaurant outbreak in Bemidji. State officials traced the outbreak to eggs from Hillandale Farms. More lawsuits are being prepared for PritzkerOlsen's egg Salmonella clients in other states.
Free case consultations can be obtained by completing the contact form on the side of this Web page or by calling a Salmonella egg recall lawyer at 1-888-377-8900 (TOLL FREE).
