UPDATE: Congress now involved in egg recall investigation

Congress' House Energy and Commerce Committee has requested documents and information from both Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms regarding the ongoing recall of their shell eggs.
The two companies have now recalled over half a billion eggs between them; a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokesperson said the two recalls are related. According to a Hillandale Farms spokesman the farms share a number of common suppliers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 1,953 cases of Salmonella enteritidis were recorded from May 1 to July 31, and so far about 1,000 of those cases have been linked to the recalled eggs. The information requested by Congress covers when the companies released information about the contamination, inspection records, internal protocols and standards and documents related to allegations of health, safety, environmental or animal cruelty violations for the companies.
The Wright County Egg recall specifically relates to eggs packed between May 16 and Aug. 13, with Julian dates ranging from 136 to 229 and plant numbers 1026, 1413, 1720, 1942 and 1946. Brand names include: Lucerne, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Dutch Farms, James Farms, Glenview, Mountain Dairy, Ralphs, Boomsma, Lund, Kemps and Pacific Coast. Affected eggs were distributed to food wholesalers, distribution centers and foodservice companies in California, Arizona, Missouri, Minnesota, Texas, Georgia, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, Illinois, Utah, Nebraska, Arkansas, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.
The Hillandale Farms recall covers eggs distributed under the brand names Hillandale Farms, Sunny Farms and Sunny Meadow sold between April and August. Hillandale said the eggs were distributed to grocery distribution centers, retail groceries and food service companies that serve or are located in 14 states: Kansas, Arkansas, California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin.
According to the FDA, new safety rules for large-scale producers were announced on July 9, but that announcement seems to have come after the salmonella outbreak began. "The outbreak could have been prevented," said FDA Spokeswoman Sherri McGarry. "The egg safety rule is in a phase-in approach, but there are measures that would have been in place that could have prevented this if it [had] been placed earlier than July."
Contaminated eggs should not be eaten, but rather disposed of or returned to the store from which they were purchased for a full refund. Additional information is available through the Egg Safety Center.