Man Behind Salmonella Recall Violated Codes

For Jack DeCoster, the chickens are coming home to roost yet again: DeCoster owns Iowa-based Wright County Eggs, which has supplied salmonella-tainted eggs to 15 of the 25 restaurants where patrons have gotten sick in the past week. So far 2,000 people nationwide have fallen ill and that number is expected to rise. Wright County's recall of some 380 million eggs—one of the largest in American history—may not be all that surprising considering DeCoster's rap sheet. In the past, he's faced legal action for hiring illegal workers, tolerating sexual harassment in the workplace and countless health violations. In 2000, the Iowa attorney general called DeCoster a "habitual violator" of state environmental laws. In 1996, the U.S. Department of Labor found workers picking up dead chickens with their bare hands, and according to the Associated Press, the complaint stated that DeCoster's workers lived beside manure and rat-infested trailers.