See the jar, the congressman challenged Stewart Parnell, holding up a container of the peanut seller’s products and asking if he’d dare eat them. Parnell pleaded the Fifth.
Damn that bastard CEO of the contaminated GA peanut butter paste plant! I went for like 2 weeks without PBJ sandwiches for lunch because of this guy. I bet the CEOs of the companies that didn’t have contaminated peanut butter (like JIF) are so pissed at this guy because the guilt by association is killing their sales at a time when they should be getting more customers. It’s pretty disturbing to hear that there is evidence this company knowingly shipped contaminated products for over 2 years, but at the same time it is really sad that the FDA had no way of making the company’s customers aware of this problem.
The House panel released e-mails obtained by its investigators showing Parnell ordered products identified with salmonella to be shipped and quoting his complaints that tests discovering the contaminated food were “costing us huge $$$$$.”
Let’s save money by canceling the tests and shipping the products anyway!
In another exchange, Parnell complained to a worker after they notified him that salmonella had been found in more products.
“I go thru this about once a week,” he wrote in a June 2008 e-mail. “I will hold my breath ………. again.”
Surprisingly, he did not die of asphyxiation. The evidence seems to overwhelmingly show that there was criminal intent in this case. It’s crazy to read about how Peanut Corp. even stopped using the lab that tested their products because the results kept coming back as positive for salmonella. However, in the end I think this is pretty much a complete failure by the government agencies responsible for ensuring food safety.
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Yes, it’s pretty appalling! The worst is that I ordered something like 4 boxes of the peanut butter Girl Scout cookies a month ago!
I had ordered 1 box and promptly set them out for my co-workers to devour. Apparently, Salmonella is no deterrent to cookie deliciousness.