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

The Mountain Mail in Salida, CO reported on a cluster of E coli victims in the small Rocky Mountain community.   Two cases are confirmed and three others have symptoms that are consistent with E. coli 0157:H7 infections.

Both the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Chaffee County Public Health District are investigating, but neither has connected the Salida illnesses with a specific source.

Connections could be made to either one of two national E. coli outbreaks-- the one linked to beef from the JBS Swift Co. in Greeley, CO, which has made at least 23 people infections with E. coli 0157:H7 in nine states or the nationwide Nestle refrigerated raw cookie dough outbreak. Or maybe there is another source.

Or who knows? David Acheson, the nearest thing the federal government has to a utility in-fielder for food safety, was pushed out to say we should not expect much from Uncle Sam’s investigation of the poison Nestle cookie dough.

“This will be one of those situations where we won’t definitely know what went wrong,” Acheson said.

That  “situation,” according to a late Friday update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now involves 74 confirmed cases in 32 states, all matched from PFGE testing with onset ranges from March 16 to June 11. Thirty-four have required hospital stays and ten developed Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS).

Acheson, who started with the feds as senior food scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and now is FDA’s assistant commissioner for food safety, sounds like a man giving up.

Cookie dough samples have tested positive for different strains of E. coli, but not yet the exact PFGE match to those who are ill. And how any E. coli is getting in the cookie dough is a mystery.

FDA is good at what its done. Testing equipment and ingredients, including the flour that might have been contaminated in the field. But what it’s done is not good enough. If FDA wants to give up, fine. 

Maybe another agency would be better suited to finishing this investigation.   If equipment and ingredients are all clean, let’s not remove the yellow tape around this crime scene too quickly. Not until everyone who had access to this plant is also investigated, employees, management, visitors.

Let’s turn it over to the FBI.

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 This just came in from your federal government:

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it has found E. coli O157:H7 (a bacterium that can cause serious food borne illness) in a sample of prepackaged Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough currently under recall by the manufacturer and marketer, Nestlé USA. The contaminated sample was collected at Nestlé’s facility in Danville, VA on June 25, 2009.

On June 19, the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned consumers not to eat any varieties of prepackaged Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough due to the risk of contamination with E. coli O157:H7. The warning was based on an epidemiological study conducted by the CDC and several state and local health departments. As of Thursday, June 25, the CDC reports that 69 persons from 29 states have been infected with the outbreak strain. Thirty-four persons have been hospitalized, nine with a severe complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome. No one has died.

Nestlé USA has fully cooperated with the FDA and CDC investigation and has recalled all of its prepackaged Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough products.

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Marler Clark client Elizabeth Armstrong testified in front of the US House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations in regards to food safety.

Her 2-year-old daughter, Ashley, one of more than 200 people affected by the outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 in spinach last year, is still dealing with the effects of kidney failure. Today she is off dialysis and home from the hospital. But she is on daily medication and will eventually need a kidney transplant, said her mother, who lives with her family in a suburb of Indianapolis.

Armstrong suggested efforts to overhaul the US Food and Drug Administration. Her report included comments from important players in the food industry, including a quote from former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler, who stated, "Our food safety system is broken."
 

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