This New York Times special report chronicles a growing movement among organic dairy farmers to overturn state bans on the sale of unpasteurized milk. According to the report, 28 states currently allow sales of raw milk “in some form,” but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has deemed the product “inherently dangerous” and banned its interstate sale. Yet one advocacy group has reportedly claimed that farmers could receive $5 to $7 per gallon for raw milk sold directly to consumers. “Now, the weak market for pasteurized milk and its effect on dairy farmers is motivating some states to reconsider their ban,” maintains the article, which cites raw milk proponents who “say that pasteurization kills enzymes and bacteria that are nutritionally beneficial and aid in digestion and diminishes vitamin content.” FDA officials, however, have apparently refuted these touted health benefits. The Times observes that the agency is currently reviewing its 60-day…
Tag Archives pathogen
Plaintiffs’ lawyer William Marler has apparently filed a second lawsuit against New York-based Fairbank Farms for injury allegedly caused by consumption of E. coli-tainted ground beef. According to Marler, the suit has been filed in a Maine state court on behalf of a woman who was hospitalized for six days after consuming meat produced by Fairbank Farms. Her cultures allegedly tested positive for the same E. coli strain found in the company’s recalled meat. See Food Poison Journal, November 17, 2009. Meanwhile, Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General to investigate the method that meat processors and the agency use to verify that ground beef is free of the bacterium. In her November 12 letter, DeLauro discusses the Fairbank Farms outbreak and notes that the company’s facility sampled its products every 10 to 20 minutes. She states, “However, despite these precautions, it…
ConAgra Foods, Inc. has asked a multidistrict litigation (MDL) court to sever and transfer the claims of some of the plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit in October 2009 against the company arising out of the purported Salmonella contamination of its peanut butter. In re: ConAgra Peanut Butter Prods. Liab. Litig., MDL No. 1845 (N.D. Ga., motion filed November 10, 2009). The company has also asked the court to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims for punitive damages, arguing that they have not been sufficiently plead under the new plausibility standard of Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 129 U.S. 1937 (2009). According to ConAgra’s motion, this lawsuit involves five plaintiffs from four different states, raising serious questions of judicial economy and juror confusion, given that evidence is located in four different states and the legal standards of four different states would have to be applied to the claims. The plaintiffs filed their lawsuit in the same…
Plaintiffs’ lawyer William Marler has reportedly begun filing lawsuits on behalf of families allegedly sickened in an E. coli outbreak linked to fresh ground beef processed by Fairbank Farms, which has recalled nearly 546,000 pounds of the product, mostly from retail outlets on the Atlantic coast and in the Northeast. According to news sources, two deaths and 28 illnesses may be linked to the outbreak. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service identified the recalled products on its Web site; they were sold under the labels of Trader Joe’s, Price Chopper, Lancaster and Wild Harvest, Shaw’s, and Giant food stores. The Ashville, New York-based company has previously recalled ground beef products on two occasions, once for possible E. coli contamination and most recently for contamination with pieces of plastic. The November 2009 recall reportedly involves ground beef produced between September 14 and 16 and was directed to…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service, (FSIS) will convene a joint meeting to address ways of enhancing current product tracing systems for food intended for humans and animals. FDA and FSIS reportedly intend for the December 9-10, 2009, event to stimulate ideas on improving their ability to “increase the speed and accuracy of traceback investigations and traceforward operations.” More specifically, the agencies want to “identify the source of contamination during outbreaks of foodborne illness and to improve the ability of all persons in the supply chain to more quickly identify food that is (or potentially is) contaminated and remove it from market during traceforward operations.” Public comments will be accepted until March 3, 2010. See Federal Register, November 3, 2009.
The European Union has reportedly blocked a U.S. request that the World Trade Organization (WTO) settle a dispute over a ban on American poultry imports. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative apparently asked for the ruling after industry groups criticized the scientific evidence behind an EU regulation prohibiting the pathogen-reduction treatments used in U.S. poultry processing. According to the National Chicken Council, U.S. poultry exports could exceed $300 million if EU regulators permitted the in-plant use of chlorine dioxide, trisodium phosphate, acidified sodium chlorite and peracetic acid in products destined for the European market. The European Union cannot block a second request, which is apparently expected in November. See Bloomberg.com, October 23, 2009; Meatingplace.com, October 26, 2009.
Plaintiffs who brought personal and economic injury claims against Topps Meat Co. for an E. coli outbreak that led to the recall of more than 20 million pounds of ground beef in 2007 have filed a motion for class certification. Patton v. Topps Meat Co., No. 07-654 (W.D.N.Y., motion filed October 15, 2009). While the proposed classes, a “consumer class” of persons who purchased ground beef subject to the recall and allege economic losses and an “injury class” of persons who consumed the ground beef and allege personal injury, are national in scope, the plaintiffs contend that New York law will apply to the case. According to the named plaintiffs, each of whom was allegedly sickened by consuming contaminated meat, federal investigators confirmed 40 E. coli cases linked to the outbreak strain and estimate that for every reported case, 20 cases go unreported. Thus, they suggest that the number of injury…
One hundred three years after Upton Sinclair published his meatpacking industry exposé, The New York Times has published an article explaining how current food safety standards may be responsible for the 16 E. coli-tainted beef outbreaks that have occurred over the past three years. Revealing how failure to test all the scraps and trimmings and “mash-like product” in hamburger patties in 2007 purportedly led to a 22-year-old dance instructor’s illness and subsequent paralysis, the article “shows why eating ground beef is still a gamble.” Apparently, no federal rules require grinders to test their ingredients for the pathogen, and processors sample assembled products rather than individual shipments from slaughterhouses, making it difficult to trace the source of contamination. Parts of the article were reportedly read on the floor of House, and its revelations prompted a response from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the company that made the beef patties the…
California residents have filed a putative class action against Pinnacle Foods Group, LLC in federal court, alleging that its frozen food products, if prepared as directed, will not “reach the ‘kill step’ temperature necessary to destroy dangerous bacteria.” Meaunrit v. The Pinnacle Foods Group, LLC, No. 09-4555 (N.D. Cal., filed September 28, 2009). They also claim that the company’s failure “to use appropriate quality control measures within its supply chain,” means that “almost every ingredient in these products is a potential carrier of pathogens, according to government and industry officials.” According to the complaint, “[s]ince there is no reasonable way to know whether Salmonella or other bacteria has [sic] been destroyed based on the design of these products, Plaintiffs and the class suffered harm due to Pinnacle’s conduct.” The named plaintiffs seek to represent a class of either California or U.S. residents, who bought “pot pie products under the Swanson and…
The representatives of a man who died of botulism have filed a lawsuit in federal court against Malo, Inc. and Massmann Enterprises, Inc., claiming that the companies responsible for maintaining food canning equipment at a Atlanta, Georgia, facility failed to warn owner Bumble Bee Foods, LLC about a leaky water valve . Caffrey et al. v. Malo, Inc. and Massmann Enterprises, Inc., No. 09-104 (S.D. Ga., September 2, 2009). The complaint alleges that the defendants should have known that the defective equipment would prevent the canning process from achieving the high temperatures and pressures necessary for sterilization. The malfunction purportedly resulted in the distribution of botulism-tainted chili, beef stew and hot dog chili sauce that led to the death of Jeffrey Caffrey in September 2007. The sister and mother of the deceased are reportedly seeking $13.5 million for negligence, wrongful death, product liability, pain and suffering, and loss of consortium. See…
