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

Yesterday, the California Senate Health Committee passed three bills introduced by Senator Dean Florez.  Before they reached the Senate Health Committee, the bills could be summarized as follows:

• Senate Bill 200 gives the Department of Health Services the much-needed authority to recall, quarantine, or destroy produce which may pose a threat to the public. The measure also creates an inspection program to proactively address the threat of outbreaks. DHS inspectors would have the authority to conduct periodic on-farm inspections, including testing of water, soil and produce.
  
• Senate Bill 201 mandates Good Agricultural Practices for leafy green growers, covering everything from water and fertilizer use, to worker hygiene, to the creation of buffer zones between fields and potential contamination sources. Growers would be required to maintain extensive documentation of these practices. These documents would be reviewed by DHS to ensure compliance.
  
• Senate Bill 202 calls for the creation of a traceback system that can quickly trace contaminated produce through the various stages of the distribution process, from farm to processor, to distributor, to retailer. In the most recent E. coli outbreaks, lettuce and spinach producers nationwide took a major economic hit, because it could not immediately be determined where the contaminated produce came from and every farm was suspect. The ability to quickly find the specific source in an outbreak, combined with DHS’ ability to quarantine or destroy suspect produce, will prevent a similar industry-wide hit in future E. coli outbreaks.
  

According to an article in today's Salinas Californian, the bills passed out of the Senate Health Committee into the Senate Appropriations Committee, but were amended to instruct public health officials to set safety standards for growers of leafy green vegetables to follow.  The Californian's Jake Henshaw wrote:

Florez originally proposed that the state health department license growers, set field standards and enforce them with inspections.

But SB 201 was amended in the Senate Agriculture Committee, chaired by [Senator Abel] Maldonado, to make state health department regulation a backup to the industry if it failed to adopt its own mandatory safety standards.

SB 200 does require the departments of Public Health and of Food and Agriculture to administer jointly an inspection program of farmers' records and field operations to be sure they are meeting approved standards.

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SEATTLE, WA (April 3, 2007) – Orange County Public Health Services announced yesterday that at least seven people had become ill with E. coli O157:H7 infections after eating at a buffet-type restaurant in Lake Forest, California. Six E. coli cases were reported to the Orange County Health Care Agency between March 31^st and April 2^nd. Six of the people with reported E. coli infections became ill after dining at the restaurant on March 23^rd or 24^th; three of the victims were hospitalized.

The Orange County Health Care Agency and the California Department of Health Services are investigating the outbreak, but have not yet determined which food served at the restaurant was contaminated with E. coli. According to an Associated Press report, foods served at this chain of Orange County restaurants are prepared at a central kitchen, which supplies nine restaurants. No E. coli illnesses have been reported from diners at other of the chain's restaurants in Orange County.

“More has to be done to ensure the safety of our food supply,” said attorney William Marler, who is representing 93 victims of last year’s spinach E. coli outbreak and over 4,500 victims of the Salmonella outbreak that was traced to contaminated peanut butter. “Consumer confidence has been shaken, and we need to know that the food we’re putting into our bodies, whether at home or in restaurants, is not contaminated with pathogenic bacteria that could kill us.”

E. coli O157:H7 is a bacterium that lives mainly in the intestines of cattle and other ruminant animals. Meat typically becomes contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 during the slaughtering process, when the contents of an animal's intestines and feces are allowed to come into contact with the carcass. Fresh fruits and vegetables can become contaminated pre-or post-harvest. Apples picked up from off the ground and used in the production of unpasteurized fruit juices were the source of a large E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in 1996. Fecal matter from cows’ udders and unsanitary production facilities have led to numerous E. coli outbreaks traced to raw milk. Contaminated seeds, irrigation water, runoff, and flooding have contributed to E. coli outbreaks traced to alfalfa sprouts, lettuce, spinach, parsley, and other fresh produce.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 73,000 cases of Escherichia coli O157:H7, or E. coli, occur annually in the United States. Every year, 2,100 Americans are hospitalized, and 61 people die as a direct result of E. coli infections and its complications.

BACKGROUND: Marler Clark has represented thousands of victims of E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks, including outbreaks traced to McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Carl’s Jr., Subway, Friendly’s, KFC, Chili’s, Chi-Chi’s, Sizzler, Dole, KFC, Jack in the Box, Odwalla, Taco Bell, Taco John’s, Pat & Oscar’s, and Sheetz. Total recoveries for victims of food poisoning exceed $300 million.

For further information about E. coli outbreaks and E. coli litigation, visit www.marlerclark.com, or contact Suzanne Schreck at (206) 346-1879 or sschreck@marlerclark.com. 

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As California spinach producers began harvesting their crops this week, legislators, consumers, and health officials discussed the possibility of another E. coli outbreak while spinach farmers and processors tried to assure the public that they were doing all they could to prevent another outbreak.  In an article for the Salinas Californian, Jake Henshaw wrote:

The industry-designed, government-supervised plan requires all handlers who voluntarily sign up to accept spinach, lettuce and other leafy greens only from growers who follow new growing standards.

The fiscal year starts Sunday for the Leafy Green Handler Marketing Agreement, and participating handlers will begin paying 2 cents per carton to pay for inspections and other activities under the new plan.

Government inspectors, paid by the assessments to ensure that farmers follow the designated growing practices, will start making rounds Monday — primarily to test the checklist they’ll use in future inspections.

“It’s kind of a period where you shake down your testing,” said Alex Leach of Taylor Farms in Salinas, who chairs the board’s technical committee, on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Santa Cruz Sentinel highlighted a public health official's stance on fresh produce safety when it quoted Patti Roberts of the Department of Health Services in an article about the spinach harvest:

"Another outbreak could be right around the corner," and the risks associated with E. coli remain.

"We may have traced the outbreak to a certain area, and we may have identified the genetic marker," Roberts said, referring to four ranches in Monterey and San Benito counties and the deadly strain, O157:H7. "But there are still a lot of unknowns out there"

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