UPDATE: Salmonella outbreak investigated
"More details in salmonella trial" Associated Press August 12, 2014
ALBANY, Ga. — A Georgia food processor linked to a deadly salmonella outbreak shipped thousands of pounds of peanut products after learning its products were contaminated and cheated on testing, a former plant manager testified Monday.
Samuel Lightsey is a key witness against his former boss, Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell, and two others.
He described documents to jurors that show Peanut Corporation shipped peanuts to companies in Missouri, Illinois, and elsewhere after receiving laboratory warnings that product samples had tested positive for salmonella. In other instances, the company cheated on testing by switching samples, Lightsey said.
In one instance, company records from September 2007 show the firm requested testing on a sample of peanut paste made for Kellogg’s before plant workers actually made the paste. Lightsey said company workers had pulled a sample from an earlier batch. Prosecutor Patrick Hearn asked whether the company could have known whether those products were safe.
‘‘They would have not known unless they had additional samples pulled,’’ Lightsey said.
The 2008-09 salmonella outbreak caused one of the largest food recalls in US history. Food safety investigators found more than 700 people across the country were infected and nine people died.
Now it is looking like murder.
Lightsey pleaded guilty to seven criminal counts in May and agreed to testify in exchange for a lighter sentence.
Oh, throw his testimony out then.
--more--"
Related: Georgia trial shows food safety relies on honor system
No worries or sensitivities, though, and it is obvious by the attention it has gotten from the Globe. You need not worry about the safety of the corporate and global food supply.
"Ga. plant manager ‘scared’ by salmonella test" Associated Press August 13, 2014
ALBANY, Ga. — The former manager of a peanut processor linked to a deadly outbreak of salmonella testified Tuesday he was ‘‘scared to death’’ the first time he saw a lab test had identified the deadly pathogen in a product.
Samuel Lightsey continued testifying as a prosecution witness against his former boss at Peanut Corp. of America, Stewart Parnell, and two others.
Lightsey said he had 17 years of experience in quality control for the food industry before joining Parnell’s firm. The first time he ever saw a positive test for salmonella was in August 2008, not long after he joined Peanut Corp., he said.
‘‘I never had one before,’’ Lightsey said, explaining why he e-mailed a memo detailing the problem to company officials. ‘‘I just wanted to make sure, let everyone know what was going on.’’
After an outside lab identified salmonella during routine testing, Lightsey said he warned a customer not to use the peanut product and prevented the shipment of suspect goods from the company’s processing facility in Georgia. The factory flushed its peanut processing lines with hot oil in an attempt to kill the bacteria. Lightsey said Parnell told him to ship the goods after additional tests did not find salmonella.
Parnell and his brother, food broker Michael Parnell, are accused of shipping tainted products to customers and covering up lab tests showing they contained salmonella. Stewart Parnell and the Georgia plant’s quality assurance manager, Mary Wilkerson, also are charged with obstructing justice.
Their company is blamed for a 2008-09 salmonella outbreak that caused one of the largest food recalls in US history. Food safety investigators found more than 700 people across the country were infected and nine people died.
Defense attorneys have not yet started their questioning of Lightsey, who pleaded guilty to seven criminal counts in May after agreeing to testify for prosecutors in exchange for a lighter sentence.
The jury saw e-mail exchanges between company officials discussing poor conditions inside the plant.
--more--"
Also see: Defense Grills Plant Manager in Salmonella Trial
