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

Lawyers for parties involved in claims that arose from the 2006 E. coli outbreak traced to contaminated spinach from California's Salinas Valley are meeting this week in the hopes of resolving claims brought by several Marler Clark clients.  Dawn Withers, a reporter with the Salinas Californian, interviewed attorney Bill Marler about the cases he is negotiating this week in a story that appeared in today's paper. 

The cases under negotiation this week involve people sickened in Utah, New York and Wisconsin, Marler said.

The lawyer is negotiating settlements with Dole, Natural Selection Foods and Mission Organics.

Cases involving deaths have been settled, Marler said, while cases involving people who were sickened, but not gravely, are also almost settled. What remains are cases involving people who suffered extreme illness, usually kidney failure or complications, he said.

During the 2006 spinach outbreak, 205 people were confirmed ill with the strain of E. coli responsible for the outbreak, and five people died. Public health agencies ultimately identified the source of the outbreak as Dole-brand baby spinach that was processed at Natural Selections Foods and grown by Mission Organics

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The USDA is proposing that they ask the public about whether the leafy green industry should be further regulated.

More regulation is the USDA's response to several E. coli outbreaks that have been the result of consumption of contaminated produce.

One option is a national version of the industry-developed standards that followed the E. coli outbreak and now govern California farmers and leafy green handlers. The USDA is considering both voluntary and mandatory standards, officials say, but favors a voluntary program that allows flexibility.

California and Arizona leafy greens producers have already signed marketing agreements that were designed to encourage good manufacturing practices across their industry, and the United Fresh Produce Association has asked the government to step in and regulate farming and processing practices for leafy greens.
 

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The Associated Press broke the story yesterday that a Wisconsin family's E. coli lawsuit - one stemming from the 2006 spinach E. coli outbreak - had been resolved without going to trial.  Dinesh Ramde, AP business writer, wrote:

The agreement was reached in October but not filed in federal court until last week. It still needs approval from a federal judge, which Marler said he is confident will happen.

The national outbreak in September 2006 was traced to tainted spinach produced by Natural Selection Foods LLC. Three people died, including 77-year-old Marion Graff of Manitowoc.

Of the 204 people sickened by the tainted greens, Marler said about 100 have brought a lawsuit. His firm is handling 83 cases and has resolved 51 within the past few months.

On September 14, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that a nationwide E. coli outbreak had been associated with the consumption of bagged baby spinach. For fear of E. coli contamination, all bagged spinach was recalled nationwide, and on September 19, 2006, FDA announced that all spinach implicated in the outbreak had been traced back to Natural Selection Foods, a company located in California’s Salinas Valley.

FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed 204 E. coli illnesses associated with the spinach E. coli outbreak, including thirty-one cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome, 104 hospitalizations, and three deaths. Victims of the E. coli outbreak were identified in 26 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Wisconsin was the state hardest-hit in the outbreak, with 49 confirmed cases of E. coli. Canada reported one confirmed case.

A joint trace back by FDA and the State of California revealed that four spinach fields were the possible source of the E. coli contamination. The outbreak strain of E. coli was isolated from cattle fields nearby the implicated spinach fields, as well as from a wild boar that was killed in one of the fields.

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USA Today featured a detailed timeline of last year's spinach outbreak - from the first death to the discovery that spinach was the source of the outbreak to the fifth death and how the spinach industry and federal investigators and regulators responded during the crises and beyond. 

Marler Clark client Jillian Kohl stated in the article:  "By the time I am 40 to 45 years old, I could be laying in a bed hooked up to dialysis machines again. I know death is inevitable, but sometimes it feels like quite a load to carry, knowing a rough timeline has potentially been put on my life."

 

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Tomorrow marks one year since E. coli-contaminated spinach was harvested from a field in California's Salinas Valley. One month from today will mark a year from the date US health officials - the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control - confirmed that that spinach was the source of a nationwide E. coli outbreak, and announced that all bagged spinach products were being recalled for possible E. coli contamination.

Earthbound Farms, which is the largest producer of gourmet salad greens, hired food safety microbiologist Mansour Samadpour to set up a testing lab just days after the outbreak was traced to the company's products.  Dr. Samadpour instituted a testing regimen that is the most aggressive in the leafy greens industry.  All products are now checked for pathogens when they arrive at the processing plant and when they are through processing.

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The California Department of Food and Agriculture today announced that members of the California Leafy Greens Handler Marketing Agreement can begin using a service mark on July 23. The service mark certifies membership in the LGMA program, and "indicates a handler's commitment to a set of Good Agricultural Practices audited by the LGMA."

In a press release issued by CFDA, Chairman of the LGMA communications committee and member of LGMA board of directors Tom Nunes stated, "The service mark reflects a handler's commitment to implementing enhanced food safety standards.  By using it on their bills of landing, our signatories will be communicating to customers that they are members in good standing of the LGMA."

Using the service mark communicates that a handler is in compliance with the marketing agreement, which means they are producing and marketing lettuce, spinach and other leafy green products in California according to the enhanced Good Agricultural Practices.
 

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Senators have approved a three-bill package by Sen. Dean Florez, giving state health regulators power to set standards for growing and processing leafy produce, including spinach and lettuce, and to set up an inspection program with state agricultural officials.

Growers also would have to set up a system that meets state standards to quickly track contaminated products and to conduct recalls.

The bills head next to the Assembly, where the fight could be just as tough, since Governor Schwarzenegger has not taken a position.
 

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United Food Group, LLC, a Vernon, California, establishment, is voluntarily expanding its recall of ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today.

The expanded recall totals approximately 370,000 pounds.

The ground beef products in the expanded recall were produced on April 13, while the products subject to the original recall were produced on April 20. The ground beef products were shipped to retail distribution centers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
 

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A salad could be one of the riskiest foods on American tables right now, according to New York Times Op/Ed columnist Paul Krugman.

As he puts it,

These are anxious days at the lunch table. For all you know, there may be E. coli on your spinach, salmonella in your peanut butter and melamine in your pet’s food and, because it was in the feed, in your chicken sandwich.

Marler Clark clients Michael and Elizabeth Armstrong and their two daughters, Isabella and Ashley, experienced the repercussions of eating what has been deemed a "risky" food in September, when the daughters became ill from E. coli-contaminated spinach. Ashley nearly died from a complication of E. coli infection known as hemolytic uremic syndrome.

Although Ashley is home now and doing well, she remained on dialysis until December. She must take six medicines daily and has only about 25 percent kidney function. Eventually, she will need a kidney transplant, doctors say.
 

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The family of Ashley and Isabella Armstrong, 2 girls affected by E. coli infection from contaminated spinach, told the Herald Journal that one thing they would like to see come out of their ordeal and those of anyone affected by foodborne illness from contaminated food is more stringent government regulations on food safety.

Although Isabella recovered quickly from the infection, her sister Ashley suffered from hemolytic uremic syndrome and kidney failure. As a result, she had to endure blood transfusions and dialysis.

In response to the spate of recalls over the past year - from spinach to peanut butter to pet food - the House Committee on Energy and Commerce last month addressed food safety at its Oversight and Investigations subcommittee hearing.
 

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An editorial in the Los Angeles Times says that all farms must follow the same food safety practices, and that the FDA needs to develop specific guidelines for the fresh produce industry to follow so the industry can prevent fecal contamination from happening in the first place:

“In addition to testing, common safety practices involve locating fields at a distance from livestock operations in order to avoid contamination from manure. If farms use manure as a fertilizer, it's supposed to be pathogen-free, and even then there is generally a waiting period between fertilizing and planting. But not all farms follow all these practices, or to the same extent. In the spinach contamination case, investigators are examining manure from a cattle pasture next to the field. The strain of E. coli found in the manure is the same as that implicated in the deaths of three people who ate the contaminated spinach.

Each time there is an E. coli breakout, the state and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration demand that the industry clean up its act. The industry asks for precise guidelines on what to do, and it gets no answers. Regulators can start by outlining mandatory, common-sense safety practices to protect both public health and farming's reputation.”
 

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The Bakersfield Californian posted an editorial about the lack of a regional food safety lab in California. In it, the newspaper mentions that industrial scale processing, packaging and shipping of perishable items often leads to consumer consumption faster than regulatory agencies can react.

The Californian's editorial accused Rep. John Doolittle of kiilling an effort to put in a regional food safety lab at UC Davis by cutting $1 million from a $100 billion Agriculture appropriations bill.

Regional food safety labs bring together experts from the federal and state governments, as well as industry, whose work is complementary rather than as competition.

If the work of a regional lab fosters collaboration among scientists, the idea would be that food contamination could be discovered sooner and outbreaks could either be prevented or stopped while in their infancy instead of reacted to after they were full-blown. 
 

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