Consumer Law

Peanut Guys have nothing to say but "uh oh."

By Kia Franklin

It's probably a good thing those Peanut Processing guys pleaded the fifth at a recent hearing about the salmonella problem. If they didn't, they would have been forced to eat their words. From NYT:

Subpoenaed to testify, Stewart Parnell, the president, and Sammy Lightsey, manager of the company?s Georgia plant, instead cited their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Shortly after the two settled into their seats, Representative Greg Walden, Republican of Oregon, brandished a large jar wrapped in yellow crime-scene tape and filled with contaminated cookies and crackers and asked the executives, ?Would either of you be willing to take the lid off and eat any of these products??

Clearly shaken, the men demurred and were dismissed a moment later. They swept out of the hearing room and were pursued by a group of photographers and reporters who shouted questions.

If this breach of safety weren't so seriously disgusting, I'd laugh at that. (I'll have to settle for snickering... but not Snickering--I have no taste for peanuts, clean or unclean, these days.) Want more reason to be outraged? Turns out the plant sent out their peanuts before they got the results back from tests for contamination. And then when the results came in, the manager said, "Uh-oh."

But should he have been surprised? Not really:

Documents made public on Wednesday by the investigations subcommittee show that the company stopped using a private laboratory because too many tests done there had showed contamination.

So I guess it's back to the safety is too expensive business model, then. If this is what we get in exchange, wouldn't you rather just pay a little more?

For more info, see ThePopTort's prior coverage. They've been tracking this story pretty regularly.

Full post as published by TortDeform.com on February 12, 2009 (boomark / email).