When is a Recall not a Recall? When you still can buy contaminated meat on your store shelves.

Jeff Gold, AP Business Writer in New Jersey, has continued to dig into the complete failure of the “voluntary recall” system to get this E. coli - contaminated Topps hamburger off store shelves. I posted nearly a week ago when reports first surfaced that the product was still being sold a month after Topps issued a recall (and went out of business). So, who is responsible for removing E. coli – contaminated meat off store shelves?  Mr. Gold’s story:

State inspectors find more recalled meat at New Jersey stores

Meat recalled a month ago that could be contaminated with a potentially fatal bacteria was found in seven northern New Jersey stores, state consumer safety officials said Tuesday. Inspectors in the past week have seized 138 boxes of frozen hamburgers made by Topps Meat Co., which issued a nationwide recall on Sept. 29 for 21.7 million pounds of frozen patties.

Greater New York Frozen Food Distribution Co. Inc., of New York, was subpoenaed last week. A spokesman for the company said Tuesday that no meat was delivered after the recall. "The meat was delivered before the recall, on Sept. 10," spokesman Frank Conner said. "We are one of many companies that delivered the meat before the recall. We stopped delivering the meat as soon as we heard about the recall. We have no control over what a grocery store owner does with his stock."



"Recall," that it has been reported that there are at least three "genetic fingerprints" of E. coli O157:H7 (potentially meaning that the contamination at Topps came from multiple sources - at least three) that has been found in ill people and in left over product.  One of those fingerprints was found in a Canadian Meat Plant (now also in bankruptcy) that was the source of both meat to Topps and to the death of one Canadian and the sickening of 44 others this past summer.  It will be interesting if the paperwork and grinding records at Topps allows for the "traceback" of all genetic fingerprints to the source.

Posted on October 31, 2007 by E. coli Attorney
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BJ's sued over meat it sold

As Jane Lerner of the Journal News reported today, Marler Clark has filed a lawsuit against BJ's Wholesale Club on behalf of the parents of a Bergen County, N.J., boy who got sick from a strain of bacteria identical to the one that nearly killed a Rockland girl two years ago.

Three-year-old Owen Langan of Wyckoff developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) after eating a hamburger made from ground beef that a family friend bought at the BJ's in Paramus. Owen got sick in May 2002, around the same time that two Rockland girls became ill after eating ground beef purchased at the BJ's in West Nyack.

One girl recovered at home. The other, age 6, developed severe complications of E. coli infection, including hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). She spent more than a month at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where she underwent blood transfusions and developed kidney failure, pancreatitis, hypertension, a blood-clotting disorder and seizures. She recovered, but continues to suffer medical complications as a result of eating the tainted hamburger. In April, her family reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with BJ's to cover medical expenses.

The strain of bacteria that sickened Owen Langan was genetically identical to the strain that made the two Rockland girls sick. Owen spent 14 days in the hospital and developed kidney failure, which required treatment by dialysis.

Posted on August 24, 2004 by Marler Lawyer
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