Egg Recall Update: Wright County Egg Had Salmonella Since 2008

by Jordan Yerman | September 15, 2010 at 02:37 pm

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Salmonella Egg Recall Update: Wright County Egg Tested Positive for Salmonella in 2008

Wright County Egg, whose eggs sparked the nationwide egg recall that would also involve Hillandale Farms, had discovered salmonella in its barns and machinery 426 times since 2008. This includes 73 occurrences of Salmonella Enteritidis, which is the strain of Salmonella associated with the egg recall. These occurrences were not mentioned in Wright County Egg's correspondence with Congress.

In its letter to Wright County Egg owner Austin DeCoster, the Congressional Committee on Enegy and Commerce wrote, "When you testify before the Committee, we ask that you come prepared to explain why your facilities tested potentially positive for Salmonella Enteritidis contamination on so many occasions, what steps you took to address the contamination identified in these test results, and whether you shared these results with FDA or other federal or state food safety officials."

The discovery that Wright County Egg had known for years of possible salmonella contamination followed a similar finding more than a year ago that the Peanut Corporation of America shipped its product to customers without waiting for test results to prove that it was safe. When test results showed that the product was contaminated, the company’s plant manager responded with an e-mail saying, “Uh-oh,” but did not order that the product be returned.