U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Monday that the owner of a peanut-processing company should be prosecuted for the salmonella poisoning of more than 600 people and federal laws should be changed in the hope of preventing future outbreaks of food-borne disease.

"Based on my review of the evidence, there should be a criminal prosecution here," said Klobuchar, D-Minn., after hosting a two-hour panel discussion on food safety at the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus.

Peanut Corp. of America, which has filed for liquidation in bankruptcy court, is the subject of a federal criminal investigation over the shipping of adulterated peanut products from its now-closed Blakely, Ga., processing plant. Last week, the company's president, Stewart Parnell, refused to testify in Congress, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Klobuchar, flanked by the sons of two Minnesotans who died after eating tainted peanut butter, pledged to push for major change in the nation's food safety net, including improving the disease-tracking efforts by states and giving government agencies power to order mandatory recalls.

On the panel were Jeff Almer and Lou Tousignant, who each had a parent die after being infected with salmonella from peanut butter served in Brainerd, Minn., nursing homes. Five experts from the university, government agencies and a food company also offered advice on what's wrong with the nation's food safety efforts.

More than 2,200 products have been recalled because they contained peanut butter or other products shipped from Peanut Corp. plants. The list, posted at www.fda.gov, includes snack bars, nut mixes, cookies, candies and other foods. Popular peanut butter products sold in jars, such as Jif and Peter Pan, are not affected by the recall.