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…
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched a newly interactive iteration of its Foodborne Outbreak Online Database Tool. The resource allows users to search data by year, state, location of food preparation, food and ingredient, and implicated germ. The information captured in the database comes from CDC’s Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System, which tracks data on outbreaks caused by enteric bacterial, viral, parasitic, and chemical agents reported by local, state and territorial health agencies. CDC estimates that one in six Americans becomes sick annually from consuming contaminated foods and beverages. See CDC News Release, October 20, 2015. Issue 582
One week after the sentencing of three Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) executives, two managers have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a Salmonella outbreak linked to nine deaths and hundreds of illnesses. Samuel Lightsey and Daniel Kilgore, former operations managers at PCA’s Blakely, Georgia, plant, were sentenced to three years and six years respectively. “By making sure that the individuals involved in the corporate fraud at PCA were held accountable, I am confident that the message to other executives is clear,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Moore. “Because we all know that it is people who make decisions about what goes on behind the corporate curtain, we’ll be looking to hold those individuals personally accountable when they steer their businesses down the path of fraud. Mr. Kilgore and Mr. Lightsey acknowledged their wrongdoing, and today their sentences reflect not only their acceptance of that responsibility, but also the…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has linked a 2013-2014 outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) that killed more than 7 million piglets to Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBCs), the reusable tote bags used to transport and store pig feed. According to an APHIS report, which seeks to explain why PEDv occurred in the United States but not Canada or the European Union, the bags were most likely contaminated in their origin country before distribution to feed mill customers across the Midwest, where they contaminated “feed or ingredients destined for delivery to the farm.” “Several of the farm investigations as well as an early case-control study suggested feed or feed delivery as the source of the outbreak; however, there were no common feed manufacturers, products, or ingredients in the initially infected herds,” states the report, which notes that the PEDv strain found…
Stewart Parnell, former chief executive of Peanut Corp. of America (PCA), has been sentenced to 28 years in prison following a conviction on federal conspiracy and fraud charges for his part in a Salmonella outbreak that killed nine people and sickened more than 700. U.S. v. Parnell, No. 13-cr-0012 (M.D. Ga., Albany Div., order entered September 21, 2015). “Americans should be able to trust that the food we buy for ourselves and our families is safe,” said Acting Associate Attorney General Stuart Delery in a September 21, 2015, press release. “The sentences handed down today to officials associated with the Peanut Corporation of America demonstrate the consequences for those whose criminal actions threaten that trust by introducing contaminated food into the marketplace. Our prosecution is just one more example of the forceful actions that the Department of Justice, with its agency partners, takes against any individual or company who compromises…
A federal court in Puerto Rico has certified a question to the territory’s supreme court to determine whether a company can be held liable for injuries stemming from the consumption of a species of shrimp that can contain a naturally occurring toxin. Cabán v. JR Seafood Inc., No. 14-1507 (D.P.R., order entered September 11, 2015). The plaintiff became quadriplegic after eating shrimp tainted with saxitoxin at a restaurant supplied by JR Seafood. He sued JR Seafood for strict liability, arguing that the product was defective. The district court abstained from ruling, holding, “After careful review of the parties’ allegations and applicable law, the court finds that this case relies solely on an unsettled issue of Puerto Rico law, as to which this court cannot reasonably predict how the Puerto Rico Supreme Court would rule.” It then certified two questions: “Under the principles of product liability, is a supplier/seller strictly liable…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would add certain highly pathogenic avian influenza strains (HPAIs) to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) list of select agents and toxins. In addition to listing any influenza virus that contains hemagglutinin (HA) from the Goose Guangdong/1/96 lineage, including wild-type viruses, CDC seeks to categorize as a Tier 1 select agent any virus containing HA from the HPAI H5N1 lineage “that were made transmissible among mammals by respiratory droplets in a laboratory.” As directed by the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, HHS maintains “a list of biological agents and toxins that have the potential to pose a severe threat to public health and safety.” Tier 1 designates those agents and toxins that “present the greatest risk of deliberate misuse with significant potential for mass casualties or…
Six consumers have filed a lawsuit against Foster Poultry Farms alleging that the company knowingly sold chicken tainted with Salmonella that sickened the plaintiffs with salmonellosis syndrome. Melendez v. Foster Poultry Farms, No. BC586891 (Cal. Super. Ct., Los Angeles Cty., filed July 2, 2015). The complaint asserts that Foster Farms refused to issue a recall after it knew of a link between its products and incidents of Salmonella infections. Foster Farms “begrudgingly initiated a very limited recall of its tainted chicken on July 12, 2014,” the plaintiffs argue, only after the investigators tested a Foster Farms product from a sickened consumer’s home and it tested positive for the outbreak strain of Salmonella. The complaint further alleges that Foster Farms promoted the growth of the bacteria by failing to meet operational and food safety standards in the months before the outbreak. The plaintiffs allege strict product liability, negligence and breach of…
Following a request from Iowa Senators Joni Ernst (R) and Chuck Grassley (R), the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will convene a hearing on July 7, 2015, to discuss the ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), H5N2. The outbreak has “decimated” turkey, chicken and other poultry flocks in 15 states, and an estimated 30 million birds in Iowa have been affected. “This is an important opportunity to bring leaders and key stakeholders together to review the pandemic spread of this deadly disease, identify areas for improvement within response procedures, and set the state to ensure we are better prepared in the future,” Ernst was quoted as saying. Increases in wholesale table egg prices have reportedly “begun to reverse due to buyer resistance and limited demand,” according to the agriculture department’s Agricultural Marketing Service. See Press Release of Sen. Charles Grassley, June 11, 2015; The New…
A June 9, 2015, New Yorker article warns that the latest strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) cut a swathe through the domestic poultry industry despite the best efforts of health officials and scientists working to contain it. Arguing that bird flu poses a greater threat than Ebola to human health, the article notes that the viruses responsible for recent global pandemics—including the H1N1 virus in 2009—started in animals before jumping to humans. “If H1N1 had been more virulent, it would have killed millions of people,” biologist Nathan Wolfe told The New Yorker’s Michael Specter. “Maybe tens of millions. Once it got out there, that thing burned right through the forest. We caught an amazingly lucky break, but let’s not kid ourselves. Luck like that doesn’t last.” In addition to describing the costs to producers, the federal government and consumers, the article also points out that the poultry farms…
