According to local press reports, the DuPage County Health Department is staffing its call center throughout the weekend to keep tabs on the rising number of gastrointestinal illnesses being reported from a Subway restaurant in Lombard.

Four more cases of shigellosis were confirmed Friday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases caused by the outbreak

Well, the stocking are hung and the presents are all wrapped, and I am surfing the net to see what there is to blog about (my version of the “Night Before Christmas”) when I found this quote:

“Nine billion food animals are produced and slaughtered in the United States annually, and all of those animals

When Taco Bell offered free tacos for every American during baseball’s World Series last month, all I could do was hold my head and mutter something like: "Hasta luego, Amigos!"

The very idea of doling out fast-food tacos to millions of baseball fans should ring like a casino jackpot jingle in the corridors of a

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that each year 76 million – or one out of every four – Americans are sickened as a result of consuming contaminated foods or beverages. Some become seriously ill; 325,000 require hospitalization and 5,000 die. Older adults, young children, and those who have weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable.
More than 250 different foodborne diseases have been identified. Most of these diseases are infections caused by a variety of bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
Foods that are contaminated with poisonous chemicals or harmful substances can also cause illness. Symptoms of foodborne illness vary by disease but the most common are nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea.Continue Reading Foodborne Illness

Kathleen Doheny of Healthy Traveler did an article today on our client Ernie Lyon of Florida who was sickened with Shigella from an airplane meal (a chicken potpie, a roll and a salad topped with cucumbers and carrots).
From the article:

Lyon, his wife, Debbie, and eight other travelers are suing Gate Gourmet, which prepared the food and services many other major airlines, says Drew Falkenstein, a Marler Clark attorney working on the case. “We have filed a lawsuit against Gate Gourmet for negligence, strict liability and breach of warranty,” Falkenstein says. They are asking for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Continue Reading Camping? Dining out? Don’t let tainted food spoil the trip

Marler Clark has filed a second lawsuit against Gate Gourmet, the airline caterer responsible for an August, 2004 Shigella outbreak among passengers on outbound flights departing from Honolulu Airport. The complaint, which was filed Wednesday in United States District Court for the District of Hawaii (Case number CV05-00401 ACK LEK), was filed on behalf of seven more victims of the outbreak.
According to the Hawaii Department of Health, travelers aboard flights departing Honolulu for destinations in Japan, Australia, American Samoa, and twenty-two U.S. states became ill with a genetically indistinguishable strain of Shigella. The first complaint filed by Marler Clark was on behalf of a Florida resident, while the amended complaint includes plaintiffs from Michigan, Maryland, California, South Dakota, and Washington State. All plaintiffs were aboard one of three flights that departed Honolulu for the US mainland on August 22 or 23, 2004.Continue Reading More plaintiffs seek punitive damages in lawsuit against airline caterer

Our client Ernie Lyon is the focus of an article in today’s Star Bulletin after we filed a lawsuit yesterday against Honolulu airline caterer Gate Gourmet yesterday:

Ernie Lyon accused the company of serving food contaminated with the Shigella bacteria, causing him to develop a 104-degree fever and accrue $3,000 in medical bills. The suit

Marler Clark filed a class action lawsuit today in King County Superior Court against Senor Felix Gourmet Mexican Foods, a California Corporation implicated in the recent Shigella outbreak. The named plaintiffs are Larissa Spafford, Robert B. Spafford, and their two-year-old son, Jasper, of Port Townsend, Washington. Ms. Spafford purchased the dip at a Port Townsend

As the Associated Press reported today, Marler Clark has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Suzie and and Hector Lapuyade of Redwood City against the owners of Viva Mexico, a local restaurant shut down after the area’s worst food poisoning outbreak in years.

The enchilada meal the Lapuyade family ate Oct. 21 led to days