October 2010

Screen shot 2010-10-23 at 1.40.41 PM.pngWednesday, October 27 to Thursday, October 28, 2010

Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States 

In the wake of one of the largest national egg recalls in history, now is the time for in-house counsel, regulatory affairs and compliance officers within the food industry to closely evaluate what your company is doing to prepare for the impending E. coli/Salmonella season and the litigation that follows.

In times such as these, your company (or client) cannot afford to be caught unprepared.

Led by the two most prominent foodborne illness litigation attorneys – on both sides –Alan Maxwell and Bill Marler, ACI’s Foodborne Illness Litigation event has been routinely cited by those in the industry as the leading conference on this developing area of the law.Continue Reading Leading Government Officials and Litigation Counsel to Speak at ACI Foodborne Illness Litigation Conference in Chicago

choppedcelery.jpgThe Texas Department of Health has shut down the Sangar food processing plant, saying it was contaminated by bacteria linked to the deaths of four people. In addition to chopped celery testing positive, inspectors found a condensation leak above a food product area, dirt on a food-preparation table, and hand-washing problems at the San Antonio…

A confidential settlement was reached yesterday between the family of 87-year old John Powers and Whittier Farms stemming from an outbreak of Listeria linked to contaminated milk. The outbreak was responsible for the death of at least four.

Screen shot 2010-10-21 at 5.11.33 AM.pngA. News of the Outbreak

On November 27, 2007, a health department officer in central Massachusetts contacted the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) to report a Listeria infection in an 87-year-old man, later identified as John Powers. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) performed on Mr. Powers’s Listeria monocytogenes stool isolate produced a pattern indistinguishable from that of isolates from three other cases identified in residents of central Massachusetts in June, October, and early November 2007. MDPH, in collaboration with local public health officials, conducted an investigation, which implicated pasteurized, flavored and non-flavored, fluid milk produced by a local dairy as the source of the outbreak. The milk was later revealed to have been produced by Whittier Farms, Inc., a family owned dairy located in Sutton, Massachusetts. In fact, it was coffee-flavored milk, produced by Whittier Farms and purchased at Shady Oaks Farm, that tested positive for Listeria and that was a PFGE-match to the strain of Listeria associated with Mr. Powers, the other victims, and the environmental samples collected from the dairy facility.Continue Reading Settlement Reached in Listeria Death

Screen shot 2010-10-20 at 3.57.52 PM.pngThe Murphy House, a Louisburg, N.C. establishment, is recalling approximately 4,920 pounds of ready-to-eat (RTE) pork barbeque products that may be contaminated with Salmonella, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The following products are subject to recall:

1 lb. and 5 lb. plastic tubs of “MURPHY HOUSE Unskinned…