Segal McCambridge Legal Blog

From InsideCounsel.com
Cargill faces salmonella lawsuit 

Meat processor Cargill Inc. is facing the first lawsuit tied to dozens of reported sicknesses from turkey products contaminated with a strain of salmonella that is resistant to many antibiotics.

Cargill has recalled 36 million pounds of fresh and frozen ground turkey products this month. The recall is one of the largest meat recalls in history, according the Los Angeles Times. More than 100 people in 31 states have been infected by the salmonella strain.

The lawsuit, which a family filed Monday in a district court in Oregon, alleges that Cargill is liable for the illness and hospitalization of a 10-month-old girl who ate spaghetti and meatballs made from the company's ground turkey.

 From the Chicago Tribune
1 death, 76 illnesses linked to ground turkey

Associated Press
4:15 p.m. CDT, August 2, 2011

Federal officials say one person has died from salmonella poisoning that appears to be linked to eating ground turkey, but the government is still investigating who produced the meat and has not initiated a recall.

Seventy-six people in 26 states have been made sick from the same strain of the disease. The CDC did not say where the person who died became sick and released no details about the death. A California official said later Tuesday that the death was in California.

Illinois cases range from a 3-year-old to a 60-year-old. The state Department of Public Health says they have occurred inOak Park and in the following counties: Cass, DuPage, Madison, Peoria, Will and Williamson.

Department spokeswoman Melaney Arnold says the first illness in Illinois began in March, while the last reported case was June 29.

The illnesses date back to March, and the CDC said Monday that cultures of ground turkey from four retail locations between March 7 and June 27 showed salmonella contamination, though those are not specifically linked to the illnesses. The agency said preliminary information showed that three of those samples have been linked to the same production establishment but did not name the retailers or the manufacturers.

The Agriculture Department oversees meat safety and would be the agency to announce a recall. The department sent out an alert about the illnesses late last week telling consumers to properly cook their turkey, which can decrease the chances of salmonella poisoning. But the department has not given consumers any further warnings about the source of the tainted meat.

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service “has not linked these illnesses to a particular brand, product, or establishment, and therefore has not issued a recall,” spokesman Brian Mabry said Tuesday. “We are continuing to investigate this situation.”

The CDC said it and USDA were “vigorously working to identify the specific contaminated product or products that are causing illnesses and will update the public on the progress of this investigation as information becomes available.”

Food safety advocate Bill Marler, an attorney who has represented victims of the nation’s biggest food-borne illness outbreaks, said he believes the three positive samples should prompt a recall.

“Consumers have no idea what to do except not eat ground turkey,” he said.

The illnesses are spread all over the country. The states with the highest number sickened were Michigan and Ohio, 10 illnesses each, while nine illnesses were reported in Texas. Illinois had seven, California six and Pennsylvania five.

The remaining states have between one and three reported illnesses linked to the outbreak, according to the CDC: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

A chart on the CDC’s website shows cases have occurred every month since early March, with spikes in May and early June. The latest reported cases were in mid-July, although the CDC said some recent cases may not have been reported yet.

University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Art Caplan said the government’s handling of the outbreak raises ethical questions about why the public wasn’t warned sooner.

“You’ve got to protect the public health. That’s their first and primary value – not industry, not any other goal. They have to warn as quickly as they think there’s reasonable evidence for concern,” Caplan said.

He said that uncertainty about the outbreak’s source might explain the long silence, but added, “the moral duty is to really get the word out as soon as you have evidence of a problem.”

CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell said Tuesday it can take three to four weeks to confirm one case. Identifying an outbreak can take considerably longer than that when cases of foodborne illness occur sporadically, in several states, as has happened in the current outbreak, she said.

Russell said the CDC isn’t advising the public to avoid eating ground turkey, but does urge people to cook it properly.

Ground turkey is considered safe to eat when the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees. For turkey patties or burgers, internal temperatures on each side should be measured.

Other government advice:

Refrigerate raw meat and poultry within two hours after purchase, one hour if temperatures in the house exceed 90 F.
Refrigerate cooked meat and poultry within two hours after cooking.
Wash hands with warm, soapy water for at least 20 seconds before and after handling raw meat and poultry.
The CDC estimates that 50 million Americans each year get sick from food poisoning, including about 3,000 who die. Salmonella causes most of these cases and federal health officials say they’ve made virtually no progress against it.

The most common symptoms of salmonella are diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within eight hours to 72 hours of eating a contaminated product. It is life-threatening to some with weakened immune systems.

Salmonella infections may last about a week and often don’t require treatment other than drinking plenty of water and other fluids. Sometimes antibiotics are used when the infection spreads from the intestines. The CDC says some salmonella bacteria have become drug-resistant because of antibiotics used to promote livestock growth.

One of the largest outbreaks last year involved salmonella-tainted eggs that may have sickened as many as 56,000. About 2,000 illnesses were reported, but CDC estimates that only a fraction of illnesses are reported in most outbreaks.

In April, Jennie-O Turkey Store, a division of Hormel, recalled almost 55,000 pounds of frozen, raw turkey burger products linked to an outbreak of a different strain of salmonella. The CDC said then that 12 people were sickened in 10 states.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that each year roughly 1 out of 6 Americans (or 48 million people) gets sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne disease

The CDC warns nearly fifty million Americans are sickened from food-borne illnesses.

NBC News reports experts estimate one in six Americans gets sick from a food-borne illness, and 3,000 die, every year. 128,000 are hospitalized from food-borne illnesses annually.

Norovirus is behind a majority of illnesses when there is a known cause, but nearly eighty percent of bugs stem from unknown causes. Salmonella and e-coli are also very common.

The researchers did not look at how people got sick — whether it was poor food preparation or tainted meat or vegetables.

A bill to overhaul the food safety system is before Congress right now. Experts at the Food and Drug Administration say the new legislation would give them the tools they need to modernize the food safety program.

For more information visit: www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden.

A total of 1,097 foodborne disease outbreaks were reported in 2007 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a CDC analysis. State investigators reported 21,244 illnesses and 18 deaths as a result of these outbreaks. The report also provides the most recent data on how many illnesses were linked to specific types of foods.

“Knowing more about what types of foods and foodborne agents have caused outbreaks can help guide public health and the food industry in developing measures to effectively control and prevent infections and help people stay healthy,” said Chris Braden, acting director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases.

Despite health officials’ efforts, the cause of an outbreak—either the food or the foodborne agent responsible—often cannot be determined or confirmed. This most commonly is the case when the outbreak is small.  In more than half of the outbreaks, a foodborne agent was not identified. Norovirus was the most frequently confirmed foodborne agent (39 percent), followed by Salmonella (27 percent).

Foodborne disease outbreaks due to norovirus occur most often when infected food handlers do not wash their hands well after using the toilet; outbreaks due to salmonella occur most often when foods are contaminated with animal feces. Contaminated foods are often of animal origin, such as beef, poultry, milk, or eggs. But any food, including vegetables, may become contaminated. Thorough cooking kills Salmonella.

The report states that in the 235 outbreaks where one food commodity was identified, the largest number of illnesses listed poultry (691 illnesses), beef (667 illnesses), and leafy vegetables (590 illnesses) as the cause. The CDC tracks 17 food commodity categories. A full listing of the number of illnesses associated with each of the categories is available at: www.cdc.gov/outbreaknet/surveillance_data.html.

To prevent foodborne illnesses, CDC recommends that consumers and food handlers appropriately clean, separate, cook and chill foods. For more details, visit www.foodsafety.gov.

From the report:
Foodborne agents cause an estimated 76 million illnesses annually in the United States. Outbreak surveillance provides insights into the causes of foodborne illness, types of implicated foods, and settings of foodborne infections that can be used in food safety strategies to prevent and control foodborne disease. CDC collects data on foodborne disease outbreaks submitted from all states and territories. This report summarizes epidemiologic data for the 1,097 reported outbreaks occurring during 2007 (the most recent finalized data), which resulted in 21,244 cases of foodborne illness and 18 deaths. Among the 497 foodborne outbreaks with a laboratory-confirmed single etiologic agent reported, norovirus was the most common cause, followed by Salmonella. Among the 18 reported deaths, 11 were attributed to bacterial etiologies (five Salmonella, three Listeria monocytogenes, two Escherichia coli O157:H7, and one Clostridium botulinum), two to viral etiologies (norovirus), and one to a chemical (mushroom toxin). Four deaths occurred in outbreaks with unknown etiologies. Among the 235 outbreaks attributed to a single food commodity, poultry (17%), beef (16%), and leafy vegetables (14%) were most often the cause of illness.

The CDC press release is here

The CDC report is here

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found that 3.9 percent of foodborne outbreaks from 1998 to 2008 in restaurants were confirmed or suspected to be from salsa, guacamole or pico de gallo.

These 136 reported outbreaks included 12 pathogens such as salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, shigella, hepatitis A and norovirus. Researchers found three deaths associated with the outbreaks.

The analysis did not explore specific reasons how salsa and guacamole became contaminated, but Dr. Rajal Mody, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC in the division that researches foodborne and environmental diseases, said the existing scientific literature provides some clues.

"Salsa and guacamole are made in large batches," he said. "Small amounts of contamination can affect lots of servings. There is the potential that salsa and guacamole are not properly refrigerated. And we know salsa and guacamole are often made from diced fresh produce items- tomatoes, cilantro, peppers, which we know have been implicated as sources in past outbreaks."

Improper storage times and temperatures were reported in about 30 percent of these restaurants, according to the research. In 20 percent of these salsa-and-guacamole-related incidents, the food workers were reported as the source of contamination.

Consumers who want to minimize risks should see whether the restaurant posts their environmental inspection score, Mody suggested.

"Ideally, our work here generates some interest in safe handling of salsa and guacamole," he said. "Just like in a restaurant kitchen, people making salsa at home should follow good safety practices. It's pretty basic. Clean your food, separate it as you prepare it, cook it and chill."

The CDC presented these findings at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases.

The CDC Press Release can be found here

For more information on the CDC’s foodborne illness webpage can be found here

The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations recently held a hearing entitled “The Role and Performance of FDA in Ensuring Food Safety.” The hearing examined several areas relating to the Food and Drug Administration’s management of international food imports and inspections of domestic food facilities. The GAO concluded that several Government agencies, including the FDA and Customs and Border Protection need to address gaps in enforcement and enhance their collaboration in order to enhance the safety of imported food.

At the hearing, FDA officials also testified in favor of strengthening their oversight of imported foods, especially passage of H.R. 2749. This proposed bill would provide valuable new enforcement mechanisms for ensuring that importers reliably verify that the foods they import are produced in compliance with the same prevention-oriented standards that would be applicable to foods produced in the United States.

The link to the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the related reports and testimony can be found here

At least 78 people have fallen ill from a Shigellosis food poisoning outbreak linked to a Chicago-area Subway restaurant. The outbreak has hospitalized 11 people and has already resulted in a number of lawsuits.

According to the DuPage County Health Department in Illinois, at least 78 people have shown signs of being infected by the Shigella bacteria since the beginning of the month. All of the food poisoning victims ate at the Subway restaurant at 1009 E. Roosevelt Road in Lombard between February 24 and March 1. Of the 11 people who have been hospitalized, 10 have been released.

The restaurant was closed as a result of the Shigella outbreak, and remains closed as health investigators continue to look into the cause of the outbreak.

At least three Shigellosis lawsuits have been filed against Neel Subway, Inc., the Subway franchise that owns the restaurant. The lawsuits have all been filed in the DuPage County Circuit Court, and charge the company with strict liability, negligence and breach of warranty.

Shigella is a type of bacteria that is highly infectious and that causes sudden and severe diarrhea in humans. It is most likely to spread from fecal material through food, contaminated water, and person-to-person contact when basic hygiene needs are not met. Symptoms can include:

* Stomach cramps
* Diarrhea
* Bloody Diarrhea
* Rectal spasms
* Seizures in children under the age of two

Shigellosis is the third most common form of food poisoning in the U.S. and has been the culprit behind a number of high-profile cruise ship food poisoning incidents in recent years.

There are an estimated 450,000 cases of Shigella poisoning, known as Shigellosis, in the U.S. each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease, Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC estimates that about 50,000 Shigellosis victims are hospitalized in the U.S. every year and about 7,000 die. Young children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems are the most at risk.