The CDC reports as of May 27, 2014, a total of 126 persons infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Infantis or Salmonella Newport have been reported from 26 states. Since the last update on May 8, 2014, a total of 66 new ill persons have been reported from 18 states: Alabama (4), Colorado (1),
May 2014
Salmonella Chia Powder Strikes Arizona, California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Utah, and Wisconsin
Collaborative investigation efforts of state, local, and federal public health and regulatory agencies indicate that organic sprouted chia powder distributed by Navitas Naturals of Novato, California is the likely source of what he CDC reports as a total of 12 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Newport reported from 7 states: Arizona (1),…
Foster Farms Takes Swing at Orkin over Roaches
Ken Carlson of the Modesto Bee reports that Foster Farms is suing Orkin LLC, charging the pest control company was to blame for cockroaches that resulted in a three-day shutdown of its Livingston poultry facility in January. The lawsuit, filed late last month in Merced County Superior Court, claims that Orkin should pay damages for…
CSPI sues FSIS to Deem Antibiotic-Resistant Salmonella Adulterants in Ground Beef and Poultry
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, the nonprofit food safety watchdog group, is asking the court to require USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to respond to a three-year-old regulatory petition in which CSPI urged the agency to treat antibiotic-resistant strains of Salmonella as adulterants in order to prevent the sale and distribution…
Insurer Maryland Casualty Tries to Wiggle Out of Responsibility in Hepatitis A Litigation
Yet another reason to hate insurance companies.
Law360 reports that Maryland Casualty Co. has asked a Pennsylvania federal court Friday to limit its liability to $2 million for its insured’s, Fallon Trading Co.’s, role in brokering a shipment of pomegranate seeds from Untied Juice/ GoKnur from Turkey that sickened 162 consumers with hepatitis A and…
Foster Farm’s Salmonella Toll Rises
The CDC reports this evening that another 50 have been added to the Foster Farm’s illness column since April 2014.
Since March 1, 2013, a total of 574 individuals infected with the outbreak strains of Salmonella Heidelberg have been reported from 27 states and Puerto Rico. Most of the ill persons (76%) have been reported…
Norovirus Outbreak Hit Royal Hawaiian
Gary T. Kubota, reporter at the Star Adveritser, reported that about 100 guests and workers at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel fell sick from an infectious virus — called norovirus — about two weeks ago.
I stayed there a few years ago with my daughters. While I gave a speech at a food safety conference, my…
Fuego’s Tortilla Grill Outbreak – A Long History of Mexican-style Restaurant Salmonella and E. coli Problems
Fuego’s Tortilla Grill Restaurant voluntarily shut down today amid an investigation by the Brazos County Health Department into an outbreak of a food-borne illness. Health department officials said they started looking into a cluster of Salmonella Typhimurium-Ohio serotype cases in September 2013 and have documented 30 cases with 26 being residents of Brazos County or…
Sprouts from Evergreen Fresh Sprouts and Jimmy John’s: An Outbreak History
Scott Maben of the Spokesman Review reported this week that Washington and Idaho health officials say people should avoid eating raw clover sprouts from an Idaho producer after the sprouts were linked to seven confirmed and three probable cases of E. coli illness in the Northwest.
The cases include five people in Spokane County, three…
Marler Clark donated $10,000 to Sprout Growers to Improve Safety in 2011
The below is from a press release in 2011 – I need to rethink how I spend money and I need to update the sprout outbreak totals.
In the face of recent E. coli and Salmonella outbreaks linked to sprouts, food safety advocate and attorney Bill Marler, managing partner of Seattle-based Marler Clark, is…