With salmonella-tainted peanuts spurring the largest food product recall in U.S. history, the House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee yesterday offered an outline of the stricter food safety rules industry could face under proposed legislation.

Lawmakers pelted executives of companies that bought ingredients from disgraced company Peanut Corporation of America, trying to assess their current food safety practices and their tolerance for proposed measures such as industry registration fees to fund mandatory annual plant inspections.

Executives from Kellogg Co., King Nut Co. and Vitamin Cottage Natural Food Markets said they would support unannounced inspections and mandatory government accreditation of third party inspectors.

"I think anything we can do to strengthen confidence in the food safety system in the U.S. is worth doing," said David Mackay, CEO of Kellogg, which has lost $70 million as a result of the recall.

Executives were more cautious when asked whether they support industry registration fees to fund annual inspections but signaled they could get behind such a measure, depending on how it was worded.

They said they would also back measures granting the Food and Drug Administration the authority to recall products, which the agency does not currently have, and would support making it mandatory for inspectors to report test results to FDA. Such reporting is not currently required, and FDA does not have the authority to demand to see test results.

"In the past the industry had been not supportive and in fact has actually opposed any kind of fees," said Erik Olson, director of chemical and food safety programs for the Pew Charitable Trusts. "I think what was significant at the hearing is that Mackay and the other industry folks signaled an openness to talking about fees."

Executives admitted they relied on third-party inspectors to determine whether Peanut Corporation of America met food safety requirements. While independent third-party inspectors are commonly used in the industry, they are paid by the companies they inspect.

The subcommittee yesterday released a series of e-mails showing a cozy relationship between Peanut Corporation and their third-party inspector, AIB. "You lucky guy," AIB inspector Pete Hatfield wrote to a Peanut Corporation official on Dec. 22, just weeks before the salmonella outbreak was discovered. "I am your AIB auditor. So we need to get your plant set up for any audit."

AIB audits in 2007 and 2008 rated the company's plants as "Superior." Nestle USA, which conducted its own audits of Peanut Corporation in 2002 and 2006 instead of using a third-party company, found rodent droppings, flour beetles and dead insects at the plant and declined to use the company's products.

Action by Labor Day?

Lawmakers pledged quick action on the issue in the wake of the recent outbreak, which has sickened more than 700 people and been blamed for killing nine, but have been sidetracked by other issues.

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) yesterday said food safety is currently third on the committee's priority list, falling behind climate change and health care legislation.

"There are a couple of us that are still working on food safety," Stupak said. "I would like nothing more than to move something by Labor Day. I know that seems like we're taking some time off, but we've got some other things to deal with."

Stupak said the committee is likely to pursue the food safety portion of a food and drug bill introduced by him, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.). The bill would establish industry registration fees to fund more federal oversight and gives FDA mandatory recall authority, among other measures

A measure proposed by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), which calls for creating a separate food safety bureau within the Health and Human Services Department, has also garnered support. Both Dingell and Stupak have said they oppose creating a new food safety agency.