Marler Blog : Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : Bill Marler : Marler Clark

A source close to the spinach industry and agricultural politics told me a few interesting facts today:

1.  Spinach Farmers and others businesses hurt financially by the recent spinach recall are considering asking for Federal or State relief along the lines that the airline industry did following 911.

    My reaction - shame, shame, shame.  Not one penny has been given to the 204 victims, including 4 deaths, some of who are still in the hospital and still on kidney dialysis.  Four families are missing family members at the holidays when they should still be here but for eating Dole baby spinach.  Again, shame, shame, shame.

2.  FDA and/or CDOH has tipped the spinach industry that the report on the spinach outbreak will be released before Christmas - just in time for another "spinach fest" at yet another meaningless Congressional Hearing on December 19, 2006 in Washington, DC.

    I wonder if victims will be invited this time as they have been excluded from other policy discussions.  One must wonder why consumers and those impacted by the spinach industy's lack of standards would be excluded from a discussion.  Perhaps it is because Hearings are not really a place where truth is sought, but is is simply a venue for politicians to suck up to their big financial contributors.  Again, shame, shame, shame.

 

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In today's Washington Post it was reported that a state legislator from Fairfax County said that she plans to introduce a bill that would allow homeless shelters in Virginia to serve home-cooked food. The proposal from Del. Kristen J. Amundson (D-Fairfax) followed a Health Department decision to crack down on the use of such food in county shelters.  See full article - Bill Supports Home-Cooked Food

Under county code, food served in shelters and soup kitchens must come from county-approved facilities. County officials said they aimed to prevent food-borne illnesses in a medically vulnerable population.  But leaders of a coalition of Fairfax churches that plans to start a seasonal shelter program tomorrow said the ban makes it more difficult for volunteers to provide food for evening meals.  The county said yesterday that it has issued a temporary permit to let one church in the program, Bethany Lutheran, serve food from unapproved kitchens. County spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald said the exception was granted because the church will provide shelter and food for only two days.

I certainly understand the Health Department's concern about having food that is safe served to the homeless population.  However, I can see the point of advocates for feeding the homeless that "home-made" food may be the only food they might get.  Tough policy decisions,  Any thoughts?

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I am an avid reader of the Perishable Pundit - especially since the recent E. coli-related spinach outbreak.

Jim recently posted an interesting quote from a buyer at www.perishablepundit.com:

Another Naysayer of Buyer-led Food Safety Initiative

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked if spinach is now “safe”, because we are carrying it. My answer is simple: we carry it because the FDA has removed their warning! I don’t get myself in a position to qualify whether or not the product is safe. I expect the government to do their job in that regard. What I have a problem with in Tim York’s approach is that it doesn’t get to the real issue, namely federal regulation in areas of production agriculture. This isn’t a spinach issue, or a California issue. That only happens to be “cause du jour”.

Industry needs to do the heavy lifting with regards to GAPs, and those GAPs may differ between some commodities. But once they are established, the FDA needs to give them the impact of federal regulation. In this way, ALL players need to participate. If you want to grow spinach, these are the things you need to do, period. It’s not about buyers, or groups of buyers, trying to make a statement as to who to buy from or not. Food safety should not be open to discrimination. And the federal government should always be the source of food safety regulation. If not, you get into a situation that exists in Western Europe, namely that the public loses faith in the government to regulate food safety. Not a good place to be!

My feeling is that there is a place for regulation, but companies that grow our food need to make is safe for business and moral reasons - it is not good to poison customers.  Jim points out that regulation may also not necessarily be the way to create safer produce:

• Perhaps food safety protocols should be mandatory, should be national and should have the force of law — but they don’t right now. Other than vague federal laws related to adulterated food, the FDA has no authority or mechanism for mandating that farms not be operated within a thousand feet of a cow or any of the other minutia that make up food safety protocols. If they did get laws and regulations passed, they have no staff to enforce the rules. And if they did have the rules and did have a police force, that would only mean that people who break the rules are criminals — not that the food is always safe.

• The notion that it is the FDA’s responsibility to determine what is safe and what is not has to be appealing to both producer and buyer. After all, if the FDA will take that burden off producers and buyers, it will help both.

• The practical issue is that, so far, we don’t see much evidence that the FDA is willing or able to regulate. The FDA has not made a proposal to Congress requesting regulatory authority. It has not proposed any regulations. So regardless of what is right or a good idea, it doesn’t seem to be happening. The buyers leading this initiative are unwilling to not do anything while we wait, like Godot, for the FDA to do something.

• The Pundit would add a more philosophical critique: In this particular arena there is no such thing as “safe” — there are only various procedures that make us incrementally “safer”. So the FDA standard, even if established, can only be a baseline. If they require a fence around a property, a more rigorous program installs double fences so if an animal gets past one, he still isn’t on the farm. A still more rigorous one digs the fence five feet underground. One can go on and on.

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Joan Murphy of the Produce News has been following the FDA's recent announcement of yet another salmonella outbreak tied to restaurant consumed tomatoes.  The full story can be found HERE.

According to Ms. Murphy, the Food & Drug Administration is now investigating two tomato-related outbreaks, with the latest blamed for nearly 100 illnesses in 19 states.  FDA was already tracing tomatoes involved in another outbreak involving 183 people in 21 states. Federal authorities said that fresh tomatoes contaminated with Salmonella typhimurium served in restaurants were the likely cause of that outbreak.   I also talked to Ms. Murphy shortly before Thanksgiving about PRIOR OUTBREAKS:

Bill Marler, an attorney with Seattle-based Marler Clark, said that the tomato industry should be more vigilant to prevent contamination on the farm, since it is virtually impossible to clean the fruit once it's been contaminated.  Mr. Marler has settled 149 cases from the 2004 Sheetz Salmonella outbreak tied to Roma tomatoes and is representing 93 victims in the more recent E. coli outbreak traced to contaminated spinach. Since the spinach contamination, the trial attorney said that he has been in high demand for speaking engagements around the country on the topic of produce safety.

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Turkey and ham product recalled because of Listeria on Thanksgiving - Bad timing Honeybaked.

47,000 Pounds Of HoneyBaked Ham, Turkey Recalled

The HoneyBaked Foods company is recalling nearly 47,000 pounds of its ham and turkey products, because they could be contaminated with Listeria.??  Listeria is a microorganism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in children, the elderly or those with weakened immune systems.  It can also cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.  For healthy adults, the symptoms are no picnic either.  They include fevers, severe headaches, nausea and diarrhea.?? The recalled products include six to eleven pound packages of "sliced and glazed fully cooked half ham" and 12 to 16 pound packages of whole ham.  HoneyBaked is also recalling three pound packages of "sliced and glazed cooked boneless turkey breast" as well as the smoked version of the turkey.??  The company has set up an 800-number for customer inquiries.??  The glazed ham and turkey was produced between September fifth and November 13th.  They were sold through the company's catalog, on the Internet and at HoneyBaked stores and kiosks in the Toledo, Ohio, region.

The recalled products include: 6- to 11-pound packages of "sliced & glazed fully cooked half ham" with the establishment number "EST. 15875" and package codes 6261 through 6310. 12- to 16-pound packages of "sliced & glazed fully cooked whole ham" with establishment number "EST. 15875" and package codes between 6261 and 6310. 3-pound packages of "sliced and glazed cooked boneless turkey breast" with establishment number "P-15875," product code 30505 02099 and package codes between 6248 and 6258. 3-pound packages of "sliced and glazed fully cooked smoked boneless turkey breast" with establishment number "P-15875," product code 30504 02099 and package codes between 6248 and 6258.

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The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced a change in the "Single Minimum Internal Temperature Established for Cooked Poultry". The new cooking recommendation is as follows:

"A whole turkey (and turkey parts) is safe when cooked to a minimum internal temperature of 165°F as measured with a food thermometer. Check the internal temperature in the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast. For reasons of personal preference, consumers may choose to cook turkey to higher temperatures."

This new cooking temperature is a change from previous 180°F for a whole turkey and 170°F for turkey breast. The single minimum internal temperature change to 165°F was recommended by the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) in a press release earlier this year. All turkey cooking recommendations for this website have been changed to reflect this update (11/06).

To read the press release in its entirety

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Another great article by Scripps Howard on the United States food system:

The actual number of Americans who die from food poisoning is a matter of conjecture. Statisticians at the CDC in Atlanta have estimated that at least 5,000 Americans die every year from something they ate.  According to federal records based on death certificates, only 1,370 Americans died of infectious intestinal diseases in 2000. Food- and water-based deaths rose to 1,586 in 2001, to 2,496 in 2002 and to 3,142 in 2003, the most recent year available.  In an attempt to demystify food-related sickness, Scripps Howard News Service conducted a demographic analysis of the 3,142 Americans who were reported to have died from intestinal infections in 2003.

A majority of those deaths, almost 84 percent, occurred in people over 70 years of age. Women accounted for almost 65 percent of the total.  More than half the people who died were widowed. Married people accounted for 33 percent and people who never married accounted for only 7 percent of the deaths.  Blacks accounted for only 6 percent of the reported deaths, or only half their proportion of the general population. Whites accounted for 93 percent, and other racial minorities just 1 percent.  Of the total, 81 percent of the people died in hospitals, but more worrisome is the fact that 13 percent of people died at home, indicating that they did not seek or receive medical help.  Almost 80 percent of the deaths occurred in metropolitan areas.

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Thomas Hargrove of Scripps Howard recently wrote an article on the risks of getting a food illness in the Untied States.  Americans play a sort of food-poisoning Russian roulette depending on where they live, an investigation by Scripps Howard News Service found. Slovenly restaurants, disease-infested food-processing plants and other sources of infectious illness go undetected all over the country, but much more frequently in some states than others.The numbers are concerning.  For example:

• More than 50,000 people got sick or died from something they ate in a hidden epidemic that went undiagnosed by the nation's public health departments over a five-year period.

• Scripps studied 6,374 food-related disease outbreaks reported by every state to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from Jan. 1, 2000, through Dec. 31, 2004. The causes of nearly two-thirds of the outbreaks in that period were officially listed as "unknown."

• The CDC defines an "outbreak" as two or more people who got sick or died after eating the same food. State and local epidemiologists are diagnosing an average of just 36 percent of the nation's reported outbreaks even though some outbreaks have hundreds of victims.

• The study found that health departments are more likely to make a diagnosis when a very large number of people get sick. They failed to determine the cause in 31 percent of the outbreaks that sickened 50 people or more. But the failure rate increases rapidly with smaller groups.

• Fifty-three percent of outbreaks affecting 10 to 49 people went undiagnosed, while 75 percent of outbreaks that sickened nine or fewer people were listed as "unknown" causes.

• Every year, an estimated 5,000 Americans die from food-based diseases like Salmonella, E. coli, Shigellosis and Campylobacter. Another 325,000 people are hospitalized. The CDC estimates that food-based sickness probably afflicts 76 million Americans annually.

The Complete article can be found here.

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E. coli (generic variety) was found in the south part of the island water supply.  My neighbors are a bit concerned - see article from Bremerton Sun.

Over 1,000 homes and 1 school are under a boil water order.  The type of E. coli found is NOT the type that can cause severe disease.  However, the finding of it in a public water supply shows that fecal bacteria has infiltrated the aquifer (well) or has found a break in the water lines (or both).

UPDATE - Boli Water Order Lifted Today

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I just got wind of another outbreak of Salmonella-tainted Tomatoes - Salmonella Newport this time - tied to restaurant consumed tomatoes.  It seems that 98 people in 19 states became ill between June and October.  Apparently, the FDA announced it to a select group, but not the public - go figure.

See my prior posts on prior tomato outbreaks.

UPDATE - 11-21-06

"Yes it is true. A second foodborne illness outbreak was caused by Salmonella Newport. The outbreak was linked to tomatoes used solely in the foodservice (restaurant, hotel, etc.) industry. The outbreak, was determined to have sickened 98 known people in 19 states. The outbreak is over. No new cases have been identified for several weeks. Most of the cases occurred back in August and September. The Salmonella strain implicated in this tomato outbreak is identical to the one implicated in outbreaks linked to tomatoes from the Eastern Shore of Virginia in 2002 and 2005. FDA has begun an investigation to determine where the implicated product came from."

Jim Prevor
http://www.PerishablePundit.com

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Bellevue accident highlights need for safer cranes

By GLENN FARLEY / KING 5 News

SEATTLE – Thursday’s fatal crane accident in Bellevue is focusing a lot of attention on the industry, which has done a pretty good job in the area of safety. But went terribly and tragically wrong after the operator told firefighters he heard a cracking noise at the base of the crane.

When it happens, it's pretty catastrophic.

Seattle Attorney Bill Marler represented a worker killed in the collapse of a crane inside the Kingdome in 1994.He says that accident was blamed on operator error.

“To the extent you can figure out what happened, hopefully, one of these things won't happen again,” he said.

The victim was identified today as Matt Ammon, 31, a Microsoft employee for five months. The King County Medical Examiner's Office said Ammon died of rib and pelvis injuries and other fractures.  Ammon lived in a fourth-floor apartment in the 248-unit Pinnacle BellCentre.

UPDATE from Seattle-PI this morning:

Operator in crane wreck has history of drug abuse
No other victims found; state orders inspections of similar equipment

A decade ago, William Marler, a Seattle Attorney, sued Ness Cranes in relation to the Kingdome crane accident of 1994, which killed two men. The general contractor on that project, Pacific Components, was also sued.  His criminal background will be relevant only if operator error is at least partially responsible for the collapse, or if he did not perform an inspection properly, said Marler, the lawyer.

"You have to have some causal link between one and the other," he said.

"The reality is that there is no public entity in inspecting cranes," said Seattle lawyer Bill Marler. "It's really the companies inspecting themselves."

GAPS IN SAFETY CONTROLS

# The state does not require drug tests before crane operators are hired.

# The state did no safety inspections at the site of Thursday's accident.

# Cranes must be inspected before each use, but it is usually done by the operator.

# A statewide crane-safety organization created after the deadly 1994 Kingdome crane accident is no longer active.

I found an interesting website on prior crane-related accidents - www.craneaccidents.com

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Willie Nelson's public statement regarding being caught with a bag of
Marijuana:  "It's a good thing I had a bag of Marijuana instead of a bag of
spinach. I'd be dead by now."

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Rep. Sam Farr, D (stands for dumb) - Carmel (although he was right about the outbreak being in part caused by wild pigs), and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns hosted a special "spinach fest" lunch in Washington, D.C. Thursday in hopes of rebuilding consumer confidence in spinach in time for Thanksgiving. More than 300 people, including members of Congress, Capitol Hill staffers, and special guests attended the event - all potential clients.  So, I don't want you to think that I am after all D's, I want to thank Sen Dick Durbin, D (stands for decent) for his letter setting forth a number of realistic proposals to improve food safety.

The Farr event was aimed at boosting consumer confidence and proving what a suck-up to industry Farr really is and how he does not give a ^&#@ about the people who died and nearly died in the latest of 20 spinach and lettuce outbreaks.   See full story at the KSBW CHANNEL NEWS.

I say - DON'T EAT POOP! And, don't eat spinach.

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Graham Johnson of KIRO 7 Eyewitness News in Seattle did a great overview in the problems on E. coli in our spinach tonight.  The full transcript is here.



Investigators have now traced the source of the outbreak to cow manure on a ranch near Natural Selection foods. They think wild pigs might have carried E. coli to the spinach fields.

Federal investigators confirm the outbreak killed three people (actually four) and made 204 sick.

Seattle attorney Bill Marler represents nearly a hundred  E. coli victims. So far, he's filed eight lawsuits.

"Right now I have questions about whether the product is safe, both spinach and lettuce," Marler said.

Marler says in the Salinas Valley, cow manure is too close to produce fields.

And when there's an outbreak, Marler says these bags spread contamination more quickly. That's because a small amount of contaminated produce is split up into countless bags and sent all over the country.

"Part of what the industry needs to look at is whether how they're selling it to us is inherently a problem. Is the convenience, in a sense, worth the risk?

Mansour Samadpour (one of the smartest guys on the planet) -- an E. coli expert in Lake Forest Park -- sees it differently.

"We have the safest food supply on the planet," said Samadpour, of IEH Laboratories.

After the outbreak in spinach, the affected companies hired him to detect and prevent E. coli.

"This was an anomaly. Something happened at the farm level. And there have been a lot of extra steps these companies are taking to make sure this product is safe."

Samandpour says Natural Selection foods now takes the unprecedented step of testing all its raw materials before they're processed.

He says safety is now rapidly improving.

"These are watershed events in food safety - this is when the industry realizes there may be a problem they did not anticipate before."

But Samandpour admits most companies don't ask for his expertise until after an outbreak.

Too bad companies do not listen to Dr. Samandpour until it is too late.

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A great article was written today by Rong-Gong Lin II, LA Times Staff Writer.  Ron, has written extensively on foodborne illnesses.

Official warns pregnant women and those with weakened immunity to avoid certain foods.

Seventeen people in Los Angeles County have contracted the bacterial food-borne illness listeriosis, including two pregnant women who had stillbirths, health officials said Tuesday.

It is important to remind pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems — such as people with cancer, diabetes or AIDS — to avoid certain foods known to be at risk for contamination from the bacterium, Listeria monocytogenes.  Those foods include the following:

• Deli meat or hot dogs that have not been reheated until steaming hot;

• Refrigerated pates or meat spreads;

• Refrigerated smoked seafood, such as those labeled nova-style, lox, kippered, smoked or jerky, unless it is cooked, such as in a casserole;

• Soft cheeses, such as feta, brie and Camembert; blue-veined cheeses; or Mexican-style cheeses such as queso blanco, queso fresco and Panela, unless labeled as being made from pasteurized milk.

In eight of the 17 cases, those infected reported eating at-risk foods. Four of the pregnant women who were sickened had eaten soft or Mexican-style cheeses.

 

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Late this evening, Timco Worldwide Inc. Recalled Cantaloupe Because of Possible Health Risk - Salmonella.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time we have seen cantaloupe recalled because of Salmonella contamination.  Over the past several years, we have been involved in at least two outbreaks that were tied to cantaloupe from Mexico - See, Shipley Sales and Susie Brand Cantaloupe.

Full press release on the Timco cantaloupe recall:

Timco Worldwide Inc. of Woodland, CA is voluntarily recalling its Sundia brand cantaloupe, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy persons infected with Salmonella often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. In rare circumstances, infection with Salmonella can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses.

Five hundred and four (504) cartons of cantaloupe were distributed in Phoenix, Arizona; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Dallas, Texas; and Okeechobee, Florida between October 30th and November 6th, 2006. The cantaloupe was distributed for sale in bulk in cardboard cartons, numbering either 9 or 15 cantaloupes to a carton, under the Sundia label. The cantaloupes are straw- colored on the exterior, with orange flesh.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

The recall was a result of a routine sampling program by the US Food and Drug Administration on October 30, 2006. That testing revealed that a portion of the finished products contained the bacteria. Timco Worldwide Inc. ceased the distribution of this product as soon as FDA apprised the company of the test results. The FDA and Timco Worldwide continue their investigation as to what caused the problem.

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The number of confirmed cases of illness attributed to E. coli bacteria is now nine.

The Orange County Health Department received a report of a possible E. coli suspect late Friday. The individual had signs and symptoms consistent with E.coli during the time period under investigation and had McAlister's restaurant in Chapel Hill -- which the department has identified as the source of the outbreak -- as a common link. Confirmation from the individual's physician was received Monday.

The department said in a news release that the new case "does not indicate that there is a continuing problem." The newest case occurred at the same time as the other eight incidents. One case remains pending, and the department expects final results from UNC Hospitals by next Wednesday.

Public health officials are finalizing food histories with the confirmed cases that are linked to McAlister's as well as with people who ate at the Franklin Street restaurant during the time period in question but did not become ill. The data will be analyzed to determine whether a particular food item may have been the source of the infection.

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When I first saw the headline "Pleasure & Peril," I thought it was about my last week of travel - Seattle to San Fransisco to Chicago to St. Paul to Seattle to Manhattan ---- Kansas.  My talk to students at K-State today is entitled: "Examining Cases of Legal Liability - Or, why I always win!"  The Food Safety guru at K-State, Dr. Doug Powell invited me, and even ran an add (listen here). 

But, alas, not everything is about me.  This story is actually about salmonella in Chocolate - again - Full story is here: "The discovery of salmonella in an Ontario candy factory has left chocolate lovers with a very bad taste"

And a great quote:  "This isn't surprising. Outbreaks of salmonella related to chocolate occur on a fairly frequent basis," said Mansel Griffiths, director of the Canadian Institute for Food Safety Research in Guelph, Ont. "Chocolate is . . . a good environment for salmonella to survive."

As Dr. Powell would say - "Don't Eat Poop" - even if it is in your chocolate.

I am thinking about a line of "Marlerwear" T-shirts with "Don't Eat Poop" in several languages - more on this later.

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The Associated Press reports that Governor Schwarzenegger has asked Mexico President-elect Felipe Calderon to put California spinach back on supermarket shelves when he takes office December first.  The Mexican government pulled U-S-imported spinach off shelves after three people died in the U-S died from eating spinach infected with the E-coli bacteria. 

Mexican officials are expected to visit California in the next two weeks to conduct final inspections before lifting the ban.  Later Friday, the governor traveled to the northern industrial city of Monterrey, where he taped a local T-V cooking show and tossed an "ensalada amigo," or "friend salad" made from California spinach.

I wonder if the Governor talked to the audience about the death of Ruby at the hands of DOLE Spinach grown in California.

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A couple of weeks ago I spoke to Dick Dahl from Lawyers Weekly.  His interesting story (if your my mother) can be found on line in an article entitled - "Cornering the Food Litigation Market"  A few of the best points follow:

How did the little firm from Puget Sound become THE law firm for plaintiffs in the spinach litigation?

Managing partner William Marler of Marler Clark told Lawyers USA that the answer, in one respect, is simple: They were already in position to be that firm.  "This is what we do," he said. "Ninety-nine percent of our work is food cases from all over the country."

Food litigation expertise

Marler had been handling high-profile food litigation for several years prior to 1998. In 1993, he was a senior associate in a mid-sized Seattle litigation firm when the Jack in the Box restaurant food-contamination case broke. He represented children who suffered severe kidney failure from eating Jack in the Box meat tainted with E. coli bacteria, and secured a series of settlements in the $3- to $5-million range, along with one for $15.6 million.

He joined a different firm where he handled another high-profile E. coli case representing children who were injured after drinking bottled Odwalla unpasteurized apple juice.

When those cases wound down, Marler decided that he wanted to form his own firm and contacted two former nemeses, Jack in the Box chief counsel Bruce Clark and his associate Denis Stearns, and asked if they were interested in started a firm that focused on food-related injury. They said yes, and Marler Clark was born.

The Boy Scout

In addition to the firm's myriad websites and blogs, Marler created yet another enterprise that provides additional marketing benefits: a nonprofit consulting company called OutBreak, Inc.  The purpose of OutBreak is "to teach companies why it's a bad idea to poison people," said Marler.  Lawyers from the firm give free presentations to companies, focusing on how to prevent liability for food-borne illnesses.
"I show them what happens during the course of litigation," continued Marler. "I show them documents that I've uncovered during the course of litigation that are very embarrassing. I show them how we've worked very closely with the U.S. Attorney's office [to get] criminal sanctions. And I show how some companies go bankrupt because of what happens in litigation."

"There's a lot of Boy Scout in me," Marler said.

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Chapel Hill E. coli Cases Rise To Eight

The number of people with confirmed cases of E. coli in Chapel Hill has risen to eight.  Of the eight confirmed cases, seven are University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students.  Health officials said seven of the eight recalled eating at McAlister's, a restaurant at 205 E. Franklin St. in Chapel Hill Oct. 23-25.

Both the people with confirmed cases and those they knew who also ate at the restaurant and did not get sick are being asked by the Environmental Health Services Division to complete food histories of that period to try to find a common link. Officials hope the tests will also narrow the focus of any possible causes, if any are found.

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An interesting story by Brian Gaylord of Produce News was the failure of sale of the Pride of San Juan's manufacturing operations to Natural Selection Foods in October.  Brian wrote:

San Juan Bautista, CA-based Natural Selection Foods has decided not to buy neighbor Pride of San Juan's manufacturing operations after running PSJ's processing plant for the past six months. That plant has been identified recently as the facility where Natural Selection Foods had packed bags of spinach under the "Dole" label that were found to have contained E. coli O157:H7.

At a press conference Sept. 28, Natural Selection Foods spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna said that the E. coli outbreak had caused the company to reassess its financial footing for purchasing the processing plant. In a March press release, Natural Selection said that its intention to purchase the facility was an effort to expand its reach in the foodservice market with specialty salads, herbs and edible flowers.

It appears that the PSJ operation was where Natural Selection Foods bagged the DOLE baby spinach that  has been linked as the source of the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak.

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Another Salmonella Outbreak Tied to Tomatoes in Restaurants - Story by Andrew Bridges of the Associated Press - See Full Story  See my Press Statement at Salmonella Blog.

At least 183 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been sickened. There were no reports of deaths, although 22 people were hospitalized.

I posted a few days ago about earlier tomato outbreaks - See my Post.  Unfortunately, we have seen this before, just two years ago in 2004 when I represented over 100 people sickened in the Sheetz/Coronet Salmonella outbreak.

Shortly after that outbreak, the FDA sent a harshly-worded letter to the Tomato Industry:

Note To: Firms that Grow, Pack or Ship Fresh Lettuce and Fresh Tomatoes:

This letter is intended to make you aware of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) concern regarding continuing outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with the consumption of fresh lettuce and fresh tomatoes, and actions we recommend that your industries take to enhance the safety of these products.

In the present outbreak, contaminated fresh tomatoes served in restaurants is the cause of the recent salmonella outbreak that sickened dozens of people in 21 states, health officials said Friday.  The states involved in the latest outbreak are: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. There also were two cases reported in Canada.

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First to San Francisco on November 7:

And, then to Kansas on November 14:

If anyone wants copies, please send me an email at bmarler@marlerclark.com

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The "Governator" was stumping for office and arrived in Prunedale on Thursday.  As reported in the Monterey Herald:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger promised the Prunedale audience to do anything to help revive lagging spinach sales, which are hurting the local agricultural industry after a widespread case of E. coli, even when health officials have assured the public it's OK to eat the greens again.

"If this will help, I'll do a TV commercial or a print ad or whatever," he said.

Perhaps the Spinach Industry should use the Governor instead of Popeye as the new mascot for spinach?

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It looks like Pacific Grove-based KAZU 90.3 FM, a public radio station, has broken the "code of silence" as to who the rancher and grower may be in the vortex of this latest E. coli outbreak.  The audio portion can be found here.  And, an updated audio report can be found here too.  As reported in The Californian Online - Salinas (CA):

Matt Christiano, the owner of Paicines Ranch in San Benito County, 12900 Airline Hwy Paicines, CA 95043 (type address into Google Earth) was cited as saying in a statement to Pacific Grove-based KAZU 90.3 FM, a public radio station, that he has been working with government investigators seeking to determine a source of the multi-state outbreak linked to fresh, bagged spinach that killed three people and sickened more than 200.

Christiano told KAZU his operation didn’t grow or process the suspect spinach but that he rents fields to two tenants. While one of the tenants has been cleared, he said the other tenant, Otto Kramm, is still being investigated.  Kramm, a partner in Salinas-based Mission Organics, was cited as telling the radio station that he grows spinach and other crops for Natural Selection, the San Juan Bautista processing company that is one of two companies named so far by government investigators as associated with the outbreak.

Interestingly, I found the following description of the ownership of Mission Organics on the UC Davis Extension website:

"The tour began with a visit to Earthbound Farm near San Juan Bautista. With more than 24,500 acres in production, the company is one of the world’s largest organic growers. En route to the plant, Ramy Colfer, chief organic agricultural researcher for .... Mission Organic."

More investigation work to do -- or, the FDA and CDOH code of silence could be broken?  What about the public's right to know?

UPDATE 6:23 pm: Local Ranch Denies Reports It's Under Investigation For E. Coli

On Thursday afternoon, Paicines Ranch owners issued this denial:

"It has been reported that the Paicines Ranch is under investigation. This is not true. The Paicines Ranch is not under investigation by any government agency. We lease row crop land to farmers. Whether or not these farmers are under investigation is unknown to us. If you want to know whether a particular farmer is under investigation, you should ask them. Since we neither farm nor process row crops of any kind, we are unable to comment further."

As my 14 year old daughter is fond of saying - "whatever."  I also found an interesting article on the Paicines Ranch dated early August of this year in The Pinnacle - interesting reading.   Ironic that about the time the article was being written the spinach that would likely be the source of this outbreak was just about to be harvested.  But, then again:

Spinach on the shelves is as safe as it was before this event," said David Acheson, chief medical officer for the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

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