A German court has reportedly ordered the city of Hamburg to compensate a Spanish vegetable grower falsely linked to a 2011 E. coli outbreak that sickened more than 4,000 people in 16 countries. Vegetable cooperative Frunet asserted that it suffered €2.3 million in damages as a result of its incorrect identification as the source of the outbreak, which was later traced to fenugreek sprouts. The amount of the award has not been confirmed. See Think Spain, October 25, 2015. Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed a lower court’s decision that the government does not owe tomato growers compensation after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) publicly attributed a 2008 Salmonella outbreak to red tomatoes, then later traced it to jalapeno and serrano peppers. DiMare Fresh, Inc. v. U.S., No. 15-5006 (Fed. Cir., order entered October 28, 2015). “The problem with the Tomato Producers’ contention…
Tag Archives E. coli
An Illinois federal court has sentenced the former president of a Wisconsin cheese company to five days in jail, one year of probation and a $750,000 fine for lying to U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors about Queso Cincho de Guerrero cheese imported from Mexico and tainted with E. coli and Salmonella. U.S. v. Zurita, No. 12-0290 (N.D. Ill., sentence entered May 8, 2015). In 2007, Mexican Cheese Producers, Inc. reportedly received tainted cheese returned by retailers. Company workers apparently scraped and washed the cheese, and it was later resold. No illnesses related to the cheese were reported, and the government could not show that company owner Miguel Leal had ordered the workers’ actions, but he pled guilty in 2014 to charges of distributing tainted food and lying about it to federal inspectors. Government prosecutors asked for prison time of 10-16 months. “I don’t think I would have put him…
A February 2, 2015, New Yorker article following the career of plaintiffs’ attorney Bill Marler examines how litigation has shaped the food-safety landscape in the absence of robust regulatory oversight. Viewing the U.S. inspection and recall system through the lens of a 2013 Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak that reportedly sickened an estimated 18,000 people, Wil Hylton interviews Marler as well as current and former federal officials about the complicated evolution and sometimes contradictory mandates of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other agencies responsible for food safety. In particular, the article notes that many regulators credited Marler with changing the role of lawsuits in food policy. “Where people typically thought of food safety as this three-legged stool—the consumer groups, the government and the industry—Bill sort of came in as a fourth leg and actually was able to effect changes in a way that none of…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, Food and Drug Administration, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are hosting a February 24, 2015, public meeting in Washington, D.C., to update stakeholders and solicit input about the agencies’ collaborative initiatives to improve foodborne illness source attribution. The discussion will target the agencies’ effort to develop a single approach to creating harmonized foodborne illness source attribution estimates from outbreak data for Salmonella, E. coli O157, Listeria, and Campylobacter. Those interested in attending the meeting should register online by February 17. See Federal Register, January 28, 2015. Issue 553
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a citizen petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) seeking a declaration that four antibiotic-resistant (ABR) strains of Salmonella are adulterants under federal law. This is CSPI’s second petition on the matter and attempts to respond to data gaps identified by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) when it denied the consumer advocacy organization’s 2011 petition in July 2014. Details about the denial appear in Issue 532 of this Update. CSPI bolsters the first petition with additional information on ABR Salmonella outbreaks, including numbers of individuals sickened and types of antibiotics to which the infections were resistant. CSPI also emphasizes that FSIS has already been declaring these pathogens adulterants on a case-by-case basis in issuing certain recalls, but its inconsistency in this regard, in CPSI’s view, is “putting consumers at risk.” While CSPI argues that its first petition…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced plans to implement “new traceback procedures when FSIS or another agency finds raw ground beef or bench trim presumptive positive for Escherichia coli O157:H7.” Under the new system, which takes effect October 14, 2014, the agency will ask suppliers to recall products that test positive for E. coli O157:H7 later in the supply chain if FSIS or another agency determines that contamination most likely occurred at the supplier’s establishment and if the product in question was sent to other grinding facilities. As explained in an August 13, 2013, press release, these new procedures “will allow the agency to trace contaminated ground beef back to its source more quickly, remove it from commerce, and find the root cause of the incident to prevent it from recurring.” To this end, FSIS will begin traceback investigations as soon as it…
The Russian consumer protection agency, Rospotrebnadzor, has reportedly announced that it filed a claim alleging that McDonald’s has misrepresented the nutritional information of several hamburger and ice cream menu items and that two restaurant locations showed traces of E. coli contamination in their salads and Caesar wraps. Although Rospotrebnadzor said it filed a lawsuit on July 3, 2014, a McDonald’s representative told the media in late July 2014 that the company had not received either an official complaint from the court or a notice from the agency. The complaint allegedly accuses McDonald’s of listing nutritional information that indicated its hamburgers and milkshakes had about one-half or one-third of the actual calorie, fat, protein, and carbohydrate counts. According to The New York Times, Russia has targeted food imports during geopolitical tension before, banning cheese and wines from post-Soviet neighbors during times of disagreement with those countries. Following Russia’s annexation of the Crimean…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has denied the May 2011 petition filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) seeking an interpretive rule declaring certain antibiotic-resistant (ABR) strains of Salmonella to be adulterants when found in raw ground meat and raw ground poultry. Additional information about the petition appears in Issue 396 of this Update. CSPI also asked the agency “to ensure adequate sampling and testing for these pathogens and to remove contaminated ground meat and ground poultry products from the human food supply.” FSIS essentially found insufficient data to distinguish ABR Salmonella strains from other Salmonella strains that are susceptible to antibiotics and thus stated that additional data on the characteristics of ABR Salmonella are needed to determine whether the strains identified in the petition “could qualify as adulterants under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) (21 U.S.C. 601…
Researchers at Penn State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences have purportedly found that edible films made from pullulan—a transparent polymer produced by the fungus Aureobasidium pulluns, silver nanoparticles, zinc oxide, and oregano and rosemary essential oils—can inhibit foodborne pathogens on meat products. Mohamed K. Morsy, et al., “Incorporation of Essential Oils and Nanoparticles in Pullulan Films to Control Foodborne Pathogens on Meat and Poultry Products,” Journal of Food Science, April 2014. Observing that the films inhibited the growth of four pathogens: Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella Typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, and E. coli O157:H7—to varying degrees, the researchers concluded that they could form “the basis of a useful packaging tool to improve the safety of meat products.” According to Penn State University Food Science Professor Catherine Cutter, who co-authored the study, the edible films are a “novel but effective way” to deliver antimicrobial agents to meats because the bacteria-killing action lasts longer than the liquid applications traditionally used. “The results from…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has terminated proceedings on a proposed marketing agreement that sought to regulate the handling of fresh leafy green vegetables in the United States. Modeled after a 2006 initiative pioneered by California growers in the wake of an E. coli outbreak linked to fresh spinach, the National Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (NLGMA) would have authorized “the development and implementation of handling regulations (audit metrics) to reflect the United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Good Agricultural Practices, Good Handling Practices, and Good Manufacturing Practices.” According to the California LGMA, which participated in the NLGMA effort, the proposed program became redundant under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which requires FDA to regulate produce farmers “to ensure their products are safe.” To this end, the California LGMA recently submitted comments on FSMA’s proposed Produce Safety Rule, asking the FDA to consider certified LGMA members as compliant…
