A coalition of food wholesalers and retailers has filed an antitrust lawsuit in a Kansas state court against egg producers and industry trade groups alleging that, by reducing the number of hens, increasing egg exports and decreasing hen lifecycles, the defendants conspired to manipulate egg prices, which have more than doubled in recent years. Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc. v. United Egg Producers, No. 10 2181 (Kan. Dist. Ct., Wyandotte Cty., filed December 23, 2010). Similar class-action lawsuits nationwide were consolidated in multidistrict litigation (MDL) proceedings in a Pennsylvania federal court; the Kansas plaintiffs apparently opted out of class to file their own claims. The petition, alleging violations of the Kansas Restraint of Trade Act, discusses the U.S. Department of Justice investigation into industry practices and relies on some documents produced during the MDL proceedings. Several settlements have apparently been reached in the MDL, and one of the defendants apparently agreed to…
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The European Commission (EC) has reportedly threatened to regulate the animal feed industry after dioxin-tainted eggs from Germany triggered a widespread investigation involving poultry and pork farms across the region. EC spokesperson Frederic Vincent apparently told reporters that a meeting with industry leaders produced “no concrete proposals” to prevent new contamination, although participants have been given one month to suggest voluntary measures in lieu of legislation. “There will not be European compensation because it is not up to the European Union to fix the damage,” Vincent said. Meanwhile, German MEP Peter Liese has called for “the dioxin crisis . . . to be resolved on a European level,” possibly through use of a monitoring system, as well as European Union (EU) compensation for farmers caught up in food scandals. “Although EU directives regulate in principle we need better controls throughout the EU. There is a lot of trade within the…
German officials have launched an investigation into an animal feed supplier that allegedly distributed a dioxin-tainted additive to 25 feed manufacturers, who in turn sold products to hundreds of poultry, pork and egg farms in Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Thuringia, Saxony, and Brandenburg. According to media sources, Uetersen-based Harles & Jentzsch GmbH made its additive from mixed fatty acids approved only for industrial use and obtained from a biodiesel company. The Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) has since reported that some additive samples contained 77 times the approved limit for dioxin, an industrial byproduct allegedly linked to cancer, although the agency has not received any health notifications related to consumer products. The revelation has drawn international attention, with South Korea and Slovakia blocking German pork and poultry imports after 136,000 tainted eggs were sold to the Netherlands. As a precaution, BMELV has apparently halted sales at…
A California egg producer has filed a lawsuit against the state and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) seeking a declaration that the improvements it has already made to its facilities, referred to as “the enriched colony housing system,” comply with the requirements of Proposition 2 (Prop. 2). JS West Milling Co., Inc. v. California, No. 10-04225 (Cal. Super. Ct., Fresno Cty., filed December 8, 2010). Prop. 2, approved in 2008, prohibits agricultural operations from confining farm animals, for all or the majority of any day, in a way that prevents the animal from “lying down, standing up, and fully extending his or her limbs; and turning around freely.” The plaintiff emphasizes that it does not seek to challenge the voter-approved proposition. Rather, because its requirements are “vague, and there is substantial disagreement among the agricultural community, animal rights groups, and other interested parties as to what they…
An Ohio poultry facility linked to the latest egg recall over Salmonella-contamination concerns was reportedly the recipient of a $125 million investment by Austin “Jack” DeCoster, the man who owned the two Iowa farms linked to the August 2010 recall of 550 million potentially contaminated eggs. The Ohio Agriculture Department apparently indicated earlier this year that DeCoster was still an investor in Ohio Fresh Eggs. The latest recall involves nearly 300,000 eggs distributed in eight states. While no confirmed illnesses have been linked to the eggs, egg seller Cal-Maine, Inc. reportedly said “consumers who believe they may have purchased potentially affected shell eggs should not eat them.” According to a news source, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked the August outbreak to at least 1,600 illnesses. DeCoster was called before a House oversight subcommittee in September and apologized for the incident, saying “We were horrified to learn that…
Austin DeCoster, who owns the Iowa egg production facility at the center of a Salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds, reportedly testified during a U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing that his company “was horrified to learn that our eggs may have made people sick.” DeCoster was also quoted as saying, “We apologize to everyone who may have been sickened by eating our eggs.” With evidence apparently mounting that DeCoster operations have been flouting worker, environmental and food safety regulations for years, it is reportedly becoming clearer to legislators that food safety “is a public health imperative” that should be addressed at the federal level. DeCoster egg farms on the East Coast were reportedly responsible in the 1980s for Salmonella outbreaks that killed a number of people and sickened hundreds more, leading several states to ban the sale of his eggs. During the hearing, Democratic Representative Edward Markey (Mass.)…
A putative class action has apparently been filed in a federal court in Illinois by six named plaintiffs who allegedly became ill after consuming Salmonella-tainted eggs from Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms in Iowa. The plaintiffs’ attorney has reportedly been given permission to inspect the farms for evidence. According to a news source, the plaintiffs allege that the companies’ negligence is responsible for the outbreak and suggest that more than the known 1,500 individuals sickened by the contaminated eggs could be class members. In a related development, news sources report that Wright County Egg had dozens of positive results for Salmonella from swabs taken on conveyor belts and in other facility areas as early as 2008 and failed to notify local, state or federal officials. Animal safety experts reportedly called such contamination “surprising” and suggested that repeated positives indicate the company was not “getting to the root cause of what the…
Consumer groups recently released a report urging the U.S. Senate to pass its version of a food safety bill (S. 510) in light of a recent egg recall linked to foodborne illness. Published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and the Consumer Federation of America, the report examines “85 recalls that have taken place in the year since food safety reform moved to the U.S. Senate.” The U.S. House of Representatives passed its food reform bill (H.R. 2749) on July 30, 2009. “The recalls involved tons of foods, including many name-brand products from more than 150 companies,” according to the report, which purportedly found that a majority of the recalls involved Salmonella and Listeria. “While most of the recalls were not connected to outbreaks, illnesses were associated with nine recalls that together were associated with 1,850 reported illnesses.” “Recalls and…
Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who chairs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) appropriations subcommittee, is seeking information from the agencies about the unfolding Salmonella outbreak linked to two Iowa egg producers. Representatives Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) have also stepped into the massive egg recall, requesting information from the same agencies and demanding documents and information from the egg company owners. Stupak’s oversight subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has scheduled a September 14, 2010, hearing into the matter and has apparently invited Wright County Egg owner Austin “Jack” DeCoster and Hillandale Farms owner Orland Bethel to testify. More than a half-billion eggs, representing less than 1 percent of the U.S. egg supply, have been recalled after an upswing in Salmonella cases came to the attention of state regulators and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention beginning in May.…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced two public meetings with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to hear stakeholder input on collective efforts to reduce illness, harm and death from contaminated food. Extensions of an initial workshop held in March 2010, the meetings will be held July 21, in Chicago, Illinois, and October 20 in Portland, Oregon. Presentations are expected from consumer groups, industry, public health experts, and state and local regulators on recommended measures for assessing food safety performance. CDC, FDA and FSIS will present information on the Food Safety Working Group’s “charge to create meaningful metrics to measure the effectiveness of the nation’s food safety system,” according to USDA. The agencies will also “present current thinking, focusing on how these metrics might be applied to evaluate the success of FDA’s shell…
