Aliments Prince, S.E.C., an establishment from Ontario, Canada, is recalling approximately 380,000 pounds of diced bacon products that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.
Through routine testing on July 19, 2011, FSIS found a sample of cooked diced bacon imported from Aliments
Of course, we are focused a bit on Oregon and the Jaquith Strawberry Farm Strawberries 2011 outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 epidemiologically associated with eating fresh strawberries produced by Jaquith Strawberry Farm, in Oregon. Over a dozen are sickened and one has died. But, there have been many other berry outbreaks over the last decades.
From Slate:
Investors and journalists have long complained that companies release bad news—a failed product trial, a recall, a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation—on Fridays, particularly after the market closes. The Friday release is a transparent attempt to evade fallout by burying bad news ahead of the weekend.”
How true!
On Friday, July 29 at 8:30 PM Eastern, the FSIS “informed” the public that 77 people were sick in 26 from Salmonella Heidelberg in turkey burger. And, that was it until days later when eventually Cargill recalled nearly 36,000,000 pounds of tainted turkey. To date over 100 people have been sickened and 1 died.
So, I really was not that surprised when the FSIS posted a press release that National Beef Packing Co. LLC, a Dodge City, Kan., establishment, was recalling approximately 60,424 pounds (30 tons) of ground beef products that may be adulterated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.
The products subject to recall include:Continue Reading Another Friday Night FSIS Recall – this time E. coli in Beef
Well, Cargill blew me off when I offered last week to forego filing suit in return for Cargill to start testing for Salmonella and diverting contaminated product before it hits the market – “Marler Clark to Cargill: Start Testing and We Won’t Sue You.” So, I am finishing up one of many complaints we now intend to file in the coming weeks. One of the states that we will be filing in is Oregon. Interestingly, it has a statue that allows for punitive damages. (Note, Cargill’s one year earnings are $2.69 billion on revenue of $119.5 billion).
Here are the allegations:
8.1 The plaintiffs adopt and incorporate by reference paragraphs 1.1 through 7.5 as though fully set forth herein.
8.2 Salmonella Heidelberg was detected at the Springdale plant even prior to March, 2011. Routine regulatory testing at the plant in June and July of 2010 again found Salmonella Heidelberg on the surface of turkey before it was ground. Despite being aware of these positive test results, and despite being aware of the high likelihood of harm the pathogenic bacteria could cause consumers, defendants failed to take reasonable and sufficient steps to prevent the outbreak. Defendants failed to alert its consumers of the potential danger, and failed to issue a recall of its ground turkey products at that time.
8.3 Defendants failed to take reasonable and sufficient steps to prevent the outbreak, despite being aware for months prior to the recall of the existence of the Salmonella Heidelberg bacteria in its Silverdale plant and on products. Defendants thereby acted with reckless and outrageous indifference to the highly unreasonable risk of harm to be caused by the Salmonella Heidelberg bacteria, and with a conscious indifference to the health, safety and welfare of the consumers of its ground turkey products.
8.4 Due to this reckless and outrageous and conscious indifference of defendants, plaintiffs pray for the assessment of punitive damages against these defendants.
The Oregon statute sets out the standards for award of punitive damages:
(1) Punitive damages are not recoverable in a civil action unless it is proven by clear and convincing evidence that the party against whom punitive damages are sought has acted with malice or has shown a reckless and outrageous indifference to a highly unreasonable risk of harm and has acted with a conscious indifference to the health, safety and welfare of others.
(2) If an award of punitive damages is made by a jury, the court shall review the award to determine whether the award is within the range of damages that a rational juror would be entitled to award based on the record as a whole, viewing the statutory and common-law factors that allow an award of punitive damages for the specific type of claim at issue in the proceeding.
(3) In addition to any reduction that may be made under subsection (2) of this section, upon the motion of a defendant the court may reduce the amount of any judgment requiring the payment of punitive damages entered against the defendant if the defendant establishes that the defendant has taken remedial measures that are reasonable under the circumstances to prevent reoccurrence of the conduct that gave rise to the claim for punitive damages. In reducing awards of punitive damages under the provisions of this subsection, the court shall consider the amount of any previous judgment for punitive damages entered against the same defendant for the same conduct giving rise to a claim for punitive damages.
The statute also allows for the state to receive a portion of the punitive damages – distribution of punitive damages:
(1) Upon the entry of a verdict including an award of punitive damages, the Department of Justice shall become a judgment creditor as to the punitive damages portion of the award to which the Criminal Injuries Compensation Account is entitled pursuant to paragraph (b) of this subsection, and the punitive damage portion of an award shall be allocated as follows:
(a) Forty percent shall be paid to the prevailing party. The attorney for the prevailing party shall be paid out of the amount allocated under this paragraph, in the amount agreed upon between the attorney and the prevailing party. However, in no event may more than 20 percent of the amount awarded as punitive damages be paid to the attorney for the prevailing party.
(b) Sixty percent shall be paid to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Account of the Department of Justice Crime Victims’ Assistance Section to be used for the purposes set forth in ORS chapter 147. However, if the prevailing party is a public entity, the amount otherwise payable to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Account shall be paid to the general fund of the public entity.
Read further why I think Cargill may well be found to have “acted with malice or has shown a reckless and outrageous indifference to a highly unreasonable risk of harm and has acted with a conscious indifference to the health, safety and welfare of others.
More of the complaint’s allegations:
3.6 Cargill has a history of recalls and association with food borne illness outbreaks:Continue Reading Will Cargill Face Punitive Damages in Salmonella Heidelberg Turkey Burger Outbreak?
The CDC reported as of August 12, there are a total of 107 persons infected (with one death) with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Heidelberg have been reported from 31 states between February 27 and August 9, 2011. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (1), Arkansas (1)
UPDATE: “The restaurant staff worked with environmental health inspectors to train on how to take apart and disinfect their preparation equipment and the restaurant passed a new inpsection.”
The Bellevue Patch reports that King County health inspectors closed Marinepolis Sushi Land in downtown Bellevue at 4 p.m. Thursday after two separate patients with Salmonella were
On August 11, the Michigan Departments of Community Health (MDCH) and Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) issued a public health alert regarding E. coli O157:NM gastrointestinal illnesses linked to the consumption of ground beef from McNees Meats and Wholesale LLC, a meat-processing and retail establishment in North Branch, Michigan
A total of five confirmed Shiga-toxin
Consumers advised to dispose of any strawberries they purchased prior to July 29 at any farmers market or road-side stand.
According to the Daily Astorian, two additional cases of E. coli infection possibly linked to tainted strawberries have been discovered in Clatsop County. The Oregon Department of Health issued a warning Monday after 16
In early 2009, health departments in several states documents PFGE-matched cases of the rare strain of Salmonella Rissen. As investigations into the apparent outbreak got fully underway, Salmonella Rissen matching the outbreak-strain—that is, the strain isolated from the individuals infected—was isolated from ground white pepper found in three different restaurants in three of the affected states. In each instance, the ground white pepper bore a U.F. Union brand name. This discovery prompted an inspection of the U.F. Union facility in Union City, California. The inspection occurred on March 27, 2009, in accordance with the Domestic Food Safety Inspection Program. At that point, there were 42 confirmed Salmonella infections that had been linked to consumption of U.F. Union’s contaminated white pepper.
Donna Pierce was born on April 16, 1939 in Antigo, Wisconsin. She died April 9, 2009 of a Salmonella Rissen infection after spending the last month of her life hospitalized. As a family member said:
Shortly after I left the hospital to get something to eat, Donna died. My heart was broken. I could not believe that she was finally gone. She and I were lifelong friends. Especially these past couple of years, we spent all of our time together. We would play board games, talk, eat, shop, and visit family. Not a day goes by that I do not miss her company.
I will always remember Donna for her great sense of humor. She loved to laugh. She believed that laughter would add years to her life. I guess it did not turn out that way for Donna.
I guess not. Read a bit about the inspection report:Continue Reading White Pepper Salmonella Rissen Death Case Resolved
The CDC report this morning – A total of 107 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Heidelberg have been reported from 31 states between February 27 and August 9, 2011. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (1), Arkansas (1), Arizona (3), California (6), Colorado (2), Georgia
