Congress questions prior contamination at plants in egg recall

Evidence of hundreds of positive tests for Salmonella contamination in the past two years at the egg-producing facilities in Iowa that had to recall some 500 million eggs have congressional leaders questioning this "disturbing" revelation.

More than 1,500 people were sickened in a Salmonella outbreak connected to the eggs, and members of Congress investigating the situation want to know what was done at the facilities in the face of the staggering number of contaminated samples that long preceded the recall.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., In a letter suggested that while the recall was the first, there had been evidence of earlier salmonella contamination.