The Salmonella egg hearing in Washington opened Wednesday with a powerful statement of disdain against operations at Wright County Egg, the Iowa farm at the center of a Salmonella Enteritidis outbreak that has sickened more than 1,600 people nationwide.
The admonishment came from Representative Henry Waxman, D-California, chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Waxman said the DeCoster family who owns Wright County Egg and raised eggs for Hillandale Farms in Iowa has known about safety problems at its facilities for decades, yet they continue to persist. Over 30 years ago, eggs from a farm operated by the DeCoster family killed nine people and sickened 500 in New York, Waxman said. Twenty years ago, Maryland ordered the DeCosters to stop selling eggs in the state because of the contamination problems.
And as Waxman's Committee revealed last week, environmental samples at DeCoster facilities over the last three years tested positive dozens of times for potential contamination by a dangerous form of Salmonella before the current outbreak erupted in May 2010.
Law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A., has filed an egg lawsuit against Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms and it continues to accept new cases for egg litigation in various states. To contact a lawyer, go to the firm's online Salmonella claims center.
According to a transcript of the chairman's remarks: "Despite these warnings, the DeCoster facilities were operated with a shocking level of disregard for basic food safety controls.'' Conditions were so bad in one facility that the wall of the barn was bursting open because of excessive manure, he said.
"DeCoster farms have had warning after warning. Yet they continue to raise chickens in slovenly conditions – and to make millions by selling contaminated eggs,'' Chairman Waxman said in his opening remarks at the hearing.
To demonstrate that the risks are real, Waxman's committee took testimony from two witnesses: Ms. Sarah Lewis and Ms. Carol Lobato. Ms. Lewis ate contaminated eggs while celebrating her sister’s college graduation, and Ms. Lobato was sickened when she went out to dinner with her grandson. They were both hospitalized and gravely ill.
"I commend Ms. Lewis and Ms. Lobato for their courage in speaking out today. Unfortunately, their horrific experiences were shared by many others. The eggs that are the subject of today’s hearing sickened over 1,600 people in 11 states,'' Waxman said.
