I am leaving for Beijing in a few hours, but had the time to try and keep the US Meat Industry honest.

Meat company hit with E. coli lawsuit

A lawsuit was filed Monday against Interstate Meats Inc. in Clackamas, whose ground beef products were identified as the source of an E. coli outbreak in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.  The lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court for the Western District of Washington by Marler Clark on behalf of Brian Leamon, a 21-year-old King County resident who became ill with an E. coli O157:H7 infection and was hospitalized for three days after eating Interstate Meats ground beef.  The lawsuit is the first filed by Marler Clark in connection with the outbreak, although the firm represents several other victims of the outbreak. The firm said more lawsuits could follow.  At least nine people — two from Oregon, six from Washington and one from Idaho — became ill during the outbreak in July and August.  As a result of the outbreak, Interstate Meats recalled approximately 41,300 pounds of ground beef products for potential E. coli contamination, Marler Clark said.  The ground beef products were produced between July 19 and July 30, 2007, and had been distributed in retail stores in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.