Peanut company whistleblower warned of rodent infestation RAW STORY

Published: Monday February 16, 2009





Print This Email This Don't eat that peanut.



ABC's Dan Harris recently talked to a manager at a peanut factory in Plainview, Texas, who warned of the squalor the snack food is produced in. Kenneth Kendrick told ABC that he became aware of rodent infestation while he was working at Peanut Corporation of America.



The company is at the center of a salmonella outbreak that took place between September 1, 2008 and January 9, 2009, with 550 people infected in 43 states and at least one more person in Canada.



Kendrick said he brought his concerns to the attention to Peanut Corp. President Stewart G. Parnell, but the problems weren't addressed.



"The owner didn't give us the money to do what we needed to do," said Kendrick. "The concern for Mr. Parnell was the money issues."



"We desperately at least need to turn the raw peanuts on our floor into money" Parnell wrote in an e-mail discussed by members of Congress.



"Mr Chairman and members of the committee on advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer your questions based on the protections afforded me under the US constitution," he told the hearing.



Bart Stupak, chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee looking into the case, said the evidence painted a "very disturbing picture."



"Since June 2007, PCA's products tested positive for salmonella on 12 different occasions," he said, adding that "the company continued to produce and distribute its peanut butter products without consequence.



"Peanut Corp. of America knew about salmonella contamination for over a year and a half, but did nothing to address it."



Testifying before the committee Charles Deibel, director of Deibel Laboratories -- which tests industry samples for bacteria -- said it was not unusual for firms to ask for positive samples to be retested.



But he added, "what is virtually unheard of is for a company to disregard those results and place potentially contaminated products into the stream of commerce".



The company is also the subject of a criminal investigation by the US Justice Department.



This video is from ABC's Good Morning America, broadcast Feb. 16, 2009.









Download video via RawReplay.com





With wire reports





