Congressional investigators have revealed that the peanut processing company at the center of a salmonella outbreak, Peanut Corporation of America, did not await the results of contamination tests before shipping products to customers. Documents made public on Wednesday also show that the company stopped using a private laboratory, because too many tests done there had showed contamination. Salmonella poisoning has already killed at least eight people, sickened more than 500, half of them children. More than 1,900 consumer products have been pulled from the shelves in one of the FDA’s largest recalls ever. Congressman Henry Waxman spoke at a congressional hearing Wednesday.

Rep. Henry Waxman: “Even after FDA began investigating in January and forced the company to recall some products, PCA’s first concerns were financial. This company cared more about its financial bottom line than it did about the safety of its customers.”

Stewart Parnell, president of the Peanut Corporation, appeared at the hearing but refused to answer questions.

Stewart Parnell: “Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, on the advice of my counsel, I respectively decline to answer your question based on the protection afforded me under the United States Constitution.”