Food Poisoning Law Blog : Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : PritzkerLaw : Food Safety, Outbreaks & Recalls

Leafy greens, such as the Romaine lettuce likely responsible for a 10-state E. coli outbreak that sickened 60 people over the last two months, are the most common source of foodborne illnesses.

 Between 1990 and 2006, lettuce and leafy greens have been linked to 363 food poisoning outbreaks, more than any other non-meat food according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a nutrition watchdog group.

The 10-state outbreak was initially thought to have stricken 37 salad bar customers at Schnucks grocery stores in the St. Louis area. However, further testing linked the E. coli 0157:H7 strain to a single lot of Romaine lettuce grown on a California farm and 60 illnesses in 10 states.

Other recent outbreaks linked to romaine lettuce include a 2010  E. coli O145 outbreak involving fresh romaine lettuce from Freshway Foods, Sidney, Ohio that sickened 26 people from five states. That outbreak was the first time that strain was identified as the source of a foodborne illness outbreak in the U.S. And, in 2008, Washington State Health Department linked commercial, bagged romaine lettuce as the source of an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in Pierce and Thurston counties. 

Romaine isn't the only leafy green that has been linked to foodborne illness outbreaks. Iceberg, mesculan and spinach have all caused outbreaks. Most notably, the 2006 Dole brand bagged baby spinach outbreak which was one of the largest E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks ever linked to leafy green vegetables in the United States. More than 200 people in 26 states were sickened and three died before the spread of infectious disease ended. 

PritzkerOlsen is a national leader in food safety law. Contact our foodborne illness attorneys for a free consultation if you have legal questions about and illness or hospitalization associated with the recent outbreak.

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 In 2007, National Public Radio did a feature story about the burgeoning winter lettuce industry in Yuma, Arizona.

The kicker to the story was that unlike the Salinas Valley in California, home to the majority of summer-grown leafy green produce -- the Yuma area was free of lettuce E. coli problems. The story quoted Kurt Nolte, then a University of Arizona professor, as saying E. coli in lettuce had not been detected in 100 years of growing leafy greens in Yuma.

All that could change if the Food and Drug Administration confirms its suspicion that an outbreak of E. coli O145 in Michigan, Ohio and New York was caused by romaine harvested on a Yuma farm. The key to the investigation will be to determine not only where the lettuce was grown, but if it was tainted in the field, at handling stations in Yuma, at the Freshway Foods processing plant in Ohio or en route by truck.

So far, investigators have confirmed 19 E. coli O145 infections and 10 more people are being counted as probable cases in this Freshway lettuce E. coli outbreak. Three of the victims have developed life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and the group of infected persons includes K-12 students from Wappingers Falls, New York.

Food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen has been in contact with victims of the outbreak and is providing free consultations to anyone affected by it. An E. coli attorney can be reached at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or by completing the contact form on the side of this Web page.

The winter lettuce season in Yuma typically runs from November through March or early April. Ohio-based Freshway has said the batch of lettuce that it recalled as part of the E. coli outbreak was harvested at the tail end of the season in Yuma.

Located in Arizona's southwestern desert, Yuma drew 50,000 people in January to the 12th annual Yuma Lettuce Days celebration. The festival celebrates the area's $700 million-a-year agriculture business, which is irrigated by the Colorado River.

The sponsors of the event included Taylor Farms, BLT Companies and Doug Mellon Farms Inc.

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Several school students in Wappingers Falls, New York, are believed to be among those sickened in the E. coli O145 outbreak linked to Freshway Foods shredded Romaine lettuce.

District Superintendent James Parla told the Poughkeepsie Journal that there were two confirmed cases of E. coli, three probable cases and one suspected case. The students go to Roy C. Ketcham High School, John Jay High School, Wappingers Junior High School and Van Wyck Middle School.

Michael Caldwell, the Dutchess County health commissioner, said an initial stool sample from one of the children who was sick seemed to link it to the larger outbreak. In addition, a Freshway Foods lettuce sample from the school tested positive for E. coli.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Freshway Foods lettuce E. coli outbreak currently involves 19 confirmed illnesses and 10 probable illnesses in New York, Ohio and Michigan since March 1. Three of the victims have suffered life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and investigators believe the contaminated lettuce originated on a farm in Yuma, Arizona at the end of the winter lettuce season.

The bacterium in this outbreak is E. coli O145 -- which often goes undetected because testing for this type of E. coli is not widely practiced. It is one of the six most common non-O157 types of E. coli and emits the same powerful and destructive toxin -- Shiga toxin -- that comes from E. coli O157:H7.

The problem at Wappingers Falls started last month when several school children reported diarrheal illness. Previously it was known that students from Ohio State University, University of Michigan and Daemen College of Amherst, New York, were involved in the outbreak.

The link to shredded lettuce was announced Thursday when Sidney, Ohio,-based Freshway Foods announced a recall of Romaine lettuce in 23 states and Washington, D.C. A New York state laboratory in Albany found the outbreak strain of E. coli O145 in a previously unopened bag of shredded Romaine lettuce from Freshway Foods that had been sold to a foodservice establishment where at least one person is believed to have gotten sick.

If you or a loved one have been sickened in this outbreak, contact law firm Pritzker Olsen for free answers to your legal questions at 1-888-377-8900. For a free consultation online, complete the contact form on the side of this Web page.

Pritzker Olsen is a national leader in foodborne illness litigation and we have collected tens of millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning over the years. We are involved in practically every major outbreak of foodborne illness representing victims.

In the Freshway Foods case, we have been in contact with public health professionals who are working on the outbreak. In addition, we are conducting our own investigation to determine how potentially deadly disease-causing organisms made their way to people's food trays in an undeniable cluster.

Note to consumers: This outbreak is apparently not related to packaged Romaine lettuce sold in grocery aisles. It was distributed to foodservice accounts including cafeterias, delis, restaurants and grab-and-go salad bars inside grocery stores. The recall involves Freshway Foods lettuce marked with a sell-by date of May 12 and sold under the Freshway brand or the Imperial Sysco brand.

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Multiple lines of evidence have been used to confirm Freshway Foods shredded Romaine lettuce as the cause of an E. coli O145 outbreak that has sickened at least 19 people in Ohio, Michigan and New York.

The Food and Drug Administration press release on the lettuce E. coli outbreak said 12 of the victims were hospitalized and three contracted hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening disease that commonly results in kidney failure and can cause heart problems, stroke, brain injury and paralysis.

A key breakthrough in the investigation occurred yesterday when epidemiologists at the New York state laboratory in Albany confirmed the presence of E. coli O145 in a previously unopened bag of Freshway Foods shredded Romaine lettuce.

The FDA says all of the contaminated lettuce recalled by Sidney, Ohio,-based Freshway Foods in connection with the lettuce outbreak came from the same production facility. The agency is still investigating the actual source of contamination at the facility and it is working with Freshway Foods to track distribution of contaminated lettuce.

In Michigan, Washtenaw County Public Health announced that it has 10 confirmed cases as part of the outbreak. Three other illnesses in Michigan remain under investigation. The three-state Freshway lettuce outbreak involved students at Ohio State University in Columbus, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Daemen College in Amherst, New York. All of the illnesses in Michigan occurred between April 9-16.

In a note to consumers, the FDA says Freshway Foods lettuce with use-by dates after May 12 are not involved in the recall; nor are any other brands of Romaine lettuce.

National food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen is conducting its own investigation of the outbreak and is accepting cases to represent victims in Freshway Foods litigation. To contact an E. coli lawyer at the firm, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete the contact form on the side of this Web page.

As one of the country's leading practitioners of foodborne illness litigation, we have represented victims in nearly every major outbreak of food poisoning. We understand the suffering that families endure when loved ones are seriously injured or killed from bacterial infections caused by contaminated food.

For instance, just this week we heard from client Randy Napier of Ohio. Nellie Napier, his mother, was one of nine people to die in the Peanut Corp. of America Salmonella outbreak early last year. Pritzker Olsen is representing three of those families.

To get a sense of the despair and harm caused by severe foodborne illness, read Randy's moving tribute posted recently on the Daily Kos blog.

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A Freshway Foods lettuce recall has been issued in the wake of an E. coli 0145 outbreak that has sickened approximately 50 people at universities and colleges in Michigan, New York and Ohio, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Illnesses have been reported at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, and Daemen College in Amherst, New York.

The potentially contaminated lettuce was sold under the Freshway and Imperial Sysco brands to wholesale, service outlets, and in-store retail salad bars and delis in the following states: Alabama, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The lettuce was distributed to those states at salad bars and delis in the following stores: Kroger, Giant Eagle, Ingles Markets, and Marsh stores.

E coli Infections from Lettuce

The food safety attorneys at Pritzker Olsen law firm have, unfortunately, dealt with foodborne illness outbreaks associated with Ecoli in lettuce before. Our lawyers have, in fact, successfully recovered monetary damages for victims of lettuce E.coli food poisoning. People with E. coli infections from food products like the contaminated Freshway Foods lettuce could be able to file a lawsuit against producers and distributors of contaminated food.

The Spinach E. coli outbreak of 2006 drew national media attention to the issue of E coli contaminated produce. Unfortunately, that outbreak was not an isolated incident. The recent Freshway Foods lettuce outbreak associated with a different strain of the pathogen--E. coli 0145--shows the need for food producers to focus on the safety of products and for government agencies to tighten produce regulations and inspections, said food poisoning attorney Fred Pritzker. "The USDA currently only regulates one strain of E. coli, and that is E. coli O157. However, if other strains of E. coli can severely sicken and even kill people, those strains need to be regulated as well."

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