Egg Producer to Apologize for Salmonella Outbreak
By GARDINER HARRIS
WASHINGTON — An Iowa egg producer at the center of a nationwide outbreak of salmonella is expected apologize to a Congressional panel on Wednesday and admit that his family operation “got big quite a while before we stopped acting like we were small.”
“What I mean by that is we were big before we started adopting sophisticated procedures to be sure we met all of the government requirements,” Austin J. DeCoster said in testimony prepared for a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. He is the founder of an egg empire that has been linked over three decades to multiple deadly outbreaks of salmonella poisoning in many states.
Mr. DeCoster’s company, Wright County Egg, and another company, Hillandale Farms, recalled more than 500 million eggs last month after health officials traced salmonella bacteria that sickened more than 1,500 people to those companies.
A subsequent inspection by the Food and Drug Administration found that the barns of the egg producers were infested with flies, maggots and rodents, and had overflowing manure pits. Records unearthed by Congressional investigators showed that tests of Wright County Egg barns had shown the presence of toxic salmonella bacteria for years prior to the outbreak.
“We were horrified to learn that our eggs may have made people sick,” Mr. DeCoster, who is known as Jack, said in his prepared remarks. “We apologize to everyone who may have been sickened by eating our eggs.”
The egg producer’s frequent run-ins with regulators over labor, environmental and immigration violations at his operations have been well documented, and in his four-paragraph statement, Mr. DeCoster also accepted responsibility for mistakes that the company has made in complying with government regulations over the years.
Mr. DeCoster will tell the panel that Wright County Egg has for 10 years used employee training, additional monitoring and other steps that go beyond government requirements to ensure that his company’s eggs are safe.
“With all of these systems, we have made important strides, and I am proud of our work,” his statement says.
He does not explain, however, why those measures failed this year.
His son, Peter DeCoster, who is Wright County Egg’s chief operating officer, is expected to tell the committee that the company failed to test its eggs for the presence of salmonella bacteria despite environmental tests that showed that his barns were contaminated because “our perception was that egg test results always would be negative,” according to his written testimony.
After the company’s farms were linked with the present outbreak of salmonella, however, the company sent 70,200 eggs, enough to represent each farm, for testing.
“These tests confirmed that Wright County Egg was producing eggs contaminated with” salmonella, Peter DeCoster said in his prepared testimony.
In his written testimony, Peter DeCoster promised to vaccinate all of his flocks against salmonella, a relatively inexpensive measure that can be highly effective in preventing the spread of the disease but that is still not required by the F.D.A.
“By focusing on our flocks, our feed and our worker biosecurity protocols we intend to demonstrate our commitment to the production of eggs that are high quality and safe,” Peter DeCoster is expected to conclude.
He is also expected to tell the committee that the company suspects that contaminated feed was the culprit.
Inspection reports released by the F.D.A. in late August pointed to a feed mill operated by Wright County Egg as a potential source of the contamination. Officials said tests found salmonella in bone meal, a feed ingredient, and in feed given to young birds, which were raised to become laying hens.
In addition, the inspection reported birds roosting and flying about the mill. Nesting material was seen in parts of the mill, including the ingredient storage area and an area where trucks were loaded.
“What I mean by that is we were big before we started adopting sophisticated procedures to be sure we met all of the government requirements,” Austin J. DeCoster said in testimony prepared for a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. He is the founder of an egg empire that has been linked over three decades to multiple deadly outbreaks of salmonella poisoning in many states.
Mr. DeCoster’s company, Wright County Egg, and another company, Hillandale Farms, recalled more than 500 million eggs last month after health officials traced salmonella bacteria that sickened more than 1,500 people to those companies.
A subsequent inspection by the Food and Drug Administration found that the barns of the egg producers were infested with flies, maggots and rodents, and had overflowing manure pits. Records unearthed by Congressional investigators showed that tests of Wright County Egg barns had shown the presence of toxic salmonella bacteria for years prior to the outbreak.
“We were horrified to learn that our eggs may have made people sick,” Mr. DeCoster, who is known as Jack, said in his prepared remarks. “We apologize to everyone who may have been sickened by eating our eggs.”
The egg producer’s frequent run-ins with regulators over labor, environmental and immigration violations at his operations have been well documented, and in his four-paragraph statement, Mr. DeCoster also accepted responsibility for mistakes that the company has made in complying with government regulations over the years.
Mr. DeCoster will tell the panel that Wright County Egg has for 10 years used employee training, additional monitoring and other steps that go beyond government requirements to ensure that his company’s eggs are safe.
“With all of these systems, we have made important strides, and I am proud of our work,” his statement says.
He does not explain, however, why those measures failed this year.
His son, Peter DeCoster, who is Wright County Egg’s chief operating officer, is expected to tell the committee that the company failed to test its eggs for the presence of salmonella bacteria despite environmental tests that showed that his barns were contaminated because “our perception was that egg test results always would be negative,” according to his written testimony.
After the company’s farms were linked with the present outbreak of salmonella, however, the company sent 70,200 eggs, enough to represent each farm, for testing.
“These tests confirmed that Wright County Egg was producing eggs contaminated with” salmonella, Peter DeCoster said in his prepared testimony.
In his written testimony, Peter DeCoster promised to vaccinate all of his flocks against salmonella, a relatively inexpensive measure that can be highly effective in preventing the spread of the disease but that is still not required by the F.D.A.
“By focusing on our flocks, our feed and our worker biosecurity protocols we intend to demonstrate our commitment to the production of eggs that are high quality and safe,” Peter DeCoster is expected to conclude.
He is also expected to tell the committee that the company suspects that contaminated feed was the culprit.
Inspection reports released by the F.D.A. in late August pointed to a feed mill operated by Wright County Egg as a potential source of the contamination. Officials said tests found salmonella in bone meal, a feed ingredient, and in feed given to young birds, which were raised to become laying hens.
In addition, the inspection reported birds roosting and flying about the mill. Nesting material was seen in parts of the mill, including the ingredient storage area and an area where trucks were loaded.
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