E Coli Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark Law Firm : E. coli Blog

Jennifer Warner of WebMD Medical News reported today that E. coli food poisoning cases are dropping.

From the article:

A new report shows cases of E. coli O157:H7 infections, one of the most severe food-borne illnesses, dropped by 36% from 2002 to 2003. Most illnesses caused by E. coli infections are the result of eating undercooked, contaminated ground beef.

"This decline is promising, but it is a one-year change and more time is needed to know whether this is going to be sustained," says Robert Tauxe, MD, chief of the CDC's food-borne and diarrheal diseases branch. "That said, overall trends suggest that efforts by industry, individuals, and certainly efforts in the regulatory arena seem to have us headed in the right direction."

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Excel Corp., a meatpacking unit of Cargill Inc., is recalling 45,030 pounds of ground beef because it may contain harmful E. coli bacteria. The meat was packed in 10-pound cylindrical tubes with a use or freeze by date of April 29, but the meat likely was repackaged by retail stores.

The meat, which was produced at Excel's Dodge City plant, was sold to distributors in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Texas.

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Kelly Scott of the St. Cloud Times reports Richmond grocery store is voluntarily recalling some ground beef sold Thursday and Friday because of a possible E. coli contamination.

The article says:

Plantenberg Food Pride sold the meat in tube packages that weighed about 10 pounds each, owner Tucker Plantenberg said. Each clear, shrink-wrapped tube has a pack date of April 9 on the package. The tubes were sold during a one-day meat sale and no other products were involved.

The meat was bought for sale by the grocery store for its one-day sale, Plantenberg said. He estimated that the store sold about 5,000 pounds of the meat.

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On April 4, the Associated Press did a story on unpasteurized milk.

From the article:

Unpasteurized milk can be breeding grounds for food poisoning bacteria such as campylobacter, E. coli and salmonella, as well as forms of tuberculosis that can be transmitted from cattle to people.

Fairbairn said her family has not gotten sick. Also, some experts say raw milk is not uniformly dangerous. Sanitary handling from farm to delivery can keep the risk of bacteria down, said Rusty Bishop, director of the Center for Dairy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

"It's amazing how clean milk is when you look at where it comes from," Bishop said. "If God had done it right, he would have put the teats at the other end of the cow."

Bishop does not drink raw milk.

Neither does Bill Marler.

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The Minnesota Ag Connection reported yesterday the state Department of Agriculture announced Friday that a Blaine meat company accused of consumer fraud, false advertising and other deceptive trade practices has given up its food handlers license, the state Department of Agriculture said Friday. More than 100 customers of the company, Farmers Pride Inc., had filed complaints with the Agriculture Department, the state attorney general and the Better Business Bureau.

The article says:

Farmers Pride, a door-to-door meat sales company, was linked to an E. coli infection outbreak in June 2003. Kevin Elfering, an inspector for the Agriculture Department, said in a news release that Farmers Pride had failed to acknowledge or respond to the E. coli bacteria contamination.

As a result, he said, a number of the company's customers became ill. In December, the attorney general's office filed a lawsuit against the company in Anoka County District Court.

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On March 22, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal in the case of a deadly E. coli outbreak at Milwaukee area Sizzler restaurants, paving the way for a trial. The court turned down a request from Excel Corp., a Wichita meat company that allegedly supplied restaurants with contaminated beef in 2000.

The meatpacker wanted the justices to overturn a state Court of Appeals ruling that the company can be sued. The appellate court decision reinstated 14 lawsuits, which have now been consolidated.

From the article:

Ten adults and four children filed suit last July after the appeals court overturned Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Michael Sullivan's dismissal of claims against Excel. Among the plaintiffs are the parents of Brianna Kriefall, who died after she ate contaminated watermelon at the salad bar of the Sizzler at 789 W. Layton Ave.

Edward Robinson, an attorney representing the Kriefall family, said a jury will decide if Excel is responsible.

"We believe that everything starts with Excel Corp. shipping meat that contained E. coli. We believe the evidence will show the conditions in their meat plant were such that it permitted E. coli to get into the meat," said Robinson.

But Ralph Weber, an attorney for Excel, said raw meat must be handled properly.

"This is a case about illnesses that came from a contaminated salad bar, not from eating meat. The case will now proceed in an effort to determine how and why that salad bar got contaminated," said Weber.

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Marler Clark has extensive experience representing victims of E. coli illnesses. The firm has represented over 1,000 E. coli victims since 1993, when William Marler represented Brianne Kiner in her $15.6 million E. coli settlement with Jack in the Box. In 1998, Marler clark resolved the Odwalla juice E. coli outbreak for the five families whose children developed HUS and were severely injured after consuming contaminated apple juice for $12 million.

In September, 2003, the Washington Supreme Court declined to review a decision upholding a $4.6 million award to 11 children injured in a 1998 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that was linked to undercooked taco meat served as part of a school lunch at an elementary school.

The firm currently represents 24 victims of E. coli poisoning traced to contaminated lettuce served at Pat & Oscars restaurants and school lunch programs in San Diego and Orange Counties in September and October as well as the family of a woman who died after eating contaminated spinach at a Portola Valley, CA nursing home.

To see a list of cases Marler Clark has litigated, or is in the process of litigating, visit www.about-ecoli.com.

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E. coli was officially considered an enteric disease in 1982, when it was determined to be the cause of a foodborne illness outbreak. Since that time, widely publicized E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks have devastated families and communities across the globe.

While the majority of foodborne illness outbreaks associated with E. coli O157:H7 have been linked to ground beef, outbreaks have been linked to produce such as lettuce, spinach, and sprouts. Outbreaks have also been linked to E. coli-contaminated apple and orange juice. Several other instances of E. coli outbreaks have been linked to cross-contamination of food products.

In addition to food products, E. coli outbreaks have been linked to contaminated water in swimming pools and lakes, as well as to dust particles in animal pens and at petting zoos.

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A recall occurs when a firm voluntarily removes product (i.e. contaminated meat) from channels of distribution. This is done to protect the public from consuming adulterated products.

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service performs random testing at meat production plants around the US. In an effort to prevent foodborne illness outbreaks, when potentially contaminated meat is identified, FSIS requests the recall of the product from all channels of distribution.

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