Best Sweet, a maker of candy and chewy over-the-counter drug products in Mooresville, N.C., made the millions of Rolaids soft chews involved in a recall last week by a unit of Johnson & Johnson, according to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif. McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the Johnson & Johnson unit, recalled about 13 million packages of Rolaids on Dec. 9, saying that metal and wood particles may have contaminated the items during production at a third-party manufacturer. But McNeil declined last week to identify the Rolaids contractor. Issa, the chairman-designate of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been investigating McNeil for its conduct in previous recalls, disclosed Best Sweet as the Rolaids manufacturer in a letter sent Friday to the Food and Drug Administration. Since Best Sweet's 'facility produces more than four billion products each year, I am concerned about FDA's knowledge of Best Sweet's contractual relationship with Johnson & Johnson in manufacturing Rolaids and whether or not the FDA is acting appropriately to determine if there are other similar public safety concerns about products manufactured by Best Sweet,' Issa wrote in the letter to Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the commissioner of the FDA. A McNeil spokesman, Marc Boston, confirmed Friday that Best Sweet had made the Rolaids and said that McNeil had shared the contractor's name with the FDA. In response to a reporter's query, Rhonda Barnat, a spokeswoman for Best Sweet who works for the Abernathy MacGregor Group, a firm that specializes in crisis communication, wrote in an e-mail: 'We have an excellent safety track record. We are cooperating with all parties.' According to the Best Sweet website, the company makes nearly a billion soft chews like antacids and calcium supplements each year, as well as more than 3 billion cough and throat drops, most as private label products for leading retailers like CVS. Best Sweet also makes hard candy for Baskin-Robbins, according to the site. The revelation increases the risk of reputational damage to Johnson & Johnson, which some legislators and industry analysts have faulted previously for failing to be forthcoming with government officials and consumers about the circumstances surrounding recent recalls of Tylenol, Motrin and other products. At the time of last week's recall, both McNeil and FDA spokesmen declined to provide specific information about the producer of the Rolaids. 'The product was manufactured for McNeil Consumer Healthcare division of McNeil-PPC by a third-party manufacturer,' Boston wrote in an e-mail Dec. 9. 'We're not providing further details.' Christopher Kelly, an FDA spokesman, said last week that 'the identity of a subcontractor is considered confidential, commercial information, and is not releasable by FDA pursuant to federal law. McNeil is responsible for the quality of its products even if they contract out the manufacturing.' In the letter, Issa asked Hamburg for more information about the recall, including any inspection reports or warning letters the agency may have issued to Best Sweet. A search of the FDA's website showed no agency warning letters to Best Sweet. 'Does the Rolaids recall raise concerns for the FDA about the safety of other products manufactured by Best Sweet?' Issa asked in the letter. He asked for a reply by Jan. 5. 