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

The federal government's expanded ban against six more types of toxic E. coli will undoubtedly save lives and prevent serious illness by further cleaning up the nation's supply of ground beef.

The new rule to be imposed in steps by the U.S. Department of Agriculture applies to the so-called Big Six -- a half-dozen types of non-O157:H7 E. coli  strains that emit powerful Shiga toxins that can lead to kidney failure, stroke, seizures, vascular injury, pancreatitis, central nervous system damage and brain injury. HUS, or hemolytic uremic syndrome, is the most serious complication of toxic E. coli infection

"Eating a hamburger should not be a high-risk activity,'' said Fred Pritzker, founder and president of PritzkerOlsen, P.A., a firm that has collected tens of millions of dollars over the years for victims of E. coli infection and HUS.

Under the change, E. coli O26, O45, O113, O111, O121 and O145 are added to the currently banned E. coli. O157:H7. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O157:H7 is responsible for 63,153 foodborne illnesses and 20 deaths each year in the U.S. At the same time the CDC noted that in 2010 illnesses caused by all of the other pathogenic forms of E. coli caused more illnesses than E. coli O157:H7.

From a legal perspective, the new rule will provide crucial protection in court for victims of ground beef E. coli outbreaks. Under the rule, it will be illegal to sell raw meat to the public if its contains any of the Big Six types of E. coli.  The so-called "adulterant'' status imparts strict liability on purveyors and leaves no room for excuses from meatpackers and others in the supply chain. The USDA ban holds them more accountable for tainted ground beef.

Pritzker and other food safety experts see the ban as a powerful deterrent because producers now will have to test for the additional pathogens. If meat tests positive for any of the bacteria, companies are allowed to divert it into cooked products because proper heat treatment kills the bugs.

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The lake at Cowans Gap State Park reopened for boating and fishing today after a two-week closure. The lake was closed to all water activities two weeks ago amid reports of E. coli illnesses associated with swimming in the lake.

Although the Cowans Gap E. coli outbreak has not definitively been linked to the lake, it was closed as a precautionary measure and still remains closed to swimming and wading. 

So far, 14 cases of E. coli O157:H7 — 11 from Pennsylvania and three from Maryland — have been reported. All of them swam in the 42-acre lake between July 12 and July 31 and became ill a short time later.

Symptoms of an E. coli poisoning contamination include stomach cramping, vomiting and bloody diarrhea. In severe cases, including several of the children involved in this outbreak, a complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) can develop. In addition to E. coli kidney failure, HUS can cause severe seizures, strokes, heart failure, hypertension, pancreatitis and other life-threatening medical problems.

Water in Pennsylvania state park lakes and pools is tested twice weekly during the season. Since the closure, the park has added a third test each week and all results have been within the normal range, officials said. To pinpoint the source of the outbreak, officials are testing samples from the lake, drinking water, sewer systems, rest rooms and concession stands. Outside food vendors also are being tested. Health officials recommend that people who have visited the park and become ill contact their health care providers.
 

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The Tennessee E. coli outbreak that has sickened 11 people in northeast counties of the state appears to be made up of various different strains of E. coli O157:H7 and non-O157 STECs. The investigation continues, but no so far no source to any of the different strains has been discovered.

STEC means shiga toxin-producing E. coli -- the group that can cause severe infection and leads to HUS E. coli in 5 percent to 10 percent of cases. Public health officials have told various news outlets that two HUS cases from Southwest Virginia -- children who were treated in a Northeast Tennessee hospital -- were of a different strain than any of the Tennessee cases. One of those children -- a 2-year-old girl from Dryden, Virginia -- tragically died.

David Kirshke, director of the Northeast Tennessee Regional Health Office, which serves Carter, Greene, Hancock, Hawkins, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi and Washington counties, told the Bristol Herald Courier that public health officials are still investigating and haven't given up on trying to find the various sources of the poisonings. Eleven cases of E. coli are typically more cases than Northeast Tennessee sees in an entire year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is assisting in the investigation.

Meanwhile, public health reminders are abounding in the region -- including advice to restaurants and home cooks to heat all ground beef products to 160 degrees throughout to kill potential bacteria. E. coli O157:H7 and other STECs originate in the guts of cattle and other animals. The organisms are expelled in feces and become impacted on animal hides. From there the microbes can flake onto meat in the slaughtering process, or E. coli can spread from nicked intestines.

The federal government has banned E. coli O157:H7, in particular, from ground beef and cuts of beef intended for grinding. Despite private and government testing regimes, ground beef E. coli outbreaks still occur and lead to E. coli lawsuits to hold meatpackers accountable for selling product with potentially lethal pathogens.

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E. coli in bean sprouts may be the cause of Germany's massive outbreak of  E. coli O104:H4, according to the latest from the investigation by public health officials. A variety of media reports say the sprouts appear to have come from a grower in northern Germany -- the center of the outbreak.

While testing is under way to confirm the cause, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is reporting 658 cases of HUS, or hemolytic uremic sydrome, and 1605 non-HUS Shiga toxin E. coli cases.   Twenty-two people have died in the outbreak.

While HUS is predominantly observed in children under 5 years of age, in this outbreak the great majority of cases are adults, with more than two thirds being women, The agency said most case patients have a history of travel to the North of Germany (mainly Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, North-Rhine-Westphalia and Hamburg). Within the EU also Denmark, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom have reported cases of HUS, related to the ongoing outbreak as well as cases of non-HUS STEC cases. 

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Existing data show that many consumers do not take appropriate protective actions during food recalls associated with outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 and other types of foodborne illness. According to government statistics,  41 percent of U.S. consmers say they have never looked for any recalled product in their home  Conversely, some consumers overreact to the announcement of a food recall.

In response to the 2006 fresh, bagged spinach recall which followed a multistate outbreak of E. coli O157: H7 infections, 18 percent of consumers said they stopped buying other bagged, fresh produce because of the spinach recall. The spinach E. coli outbreak killed three people and sickened more than 200 others. Of 102 victims who were hospitalized, 31 developed a dreaded disease known as E. coli HUS, or hemolytic uremic syndrome.

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Ever since USDA Inspector General Phyllis Fong exposed as superficial our nation's  testing methodology to find E. coli O157:H7 in ground beef, we realize more and more the need to improve our defense against this very dangerous pathogen.

Fong delivered a report last month that showed the USDA's method for test-sampling cuts of beef meant for ground beef  --  beef trim -- is an insufficient screen to keep the bacteria out of hamburger -- which is still the most likely vector to cause multi-state outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 poisoning. In 5 to 15 percent of these infections, the organism causes life-threatening hemoloytic uremic syndrome (HUS) or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP).  Children under 5 are most susceptible to HUS, which is the leading cause of E. coli death and can ravage any person of any age with a cascade of medical problems starting with kidney failure.

The Center for Public Integrity, a non-profit organization committed to investigative journalism, helped bring Fong's concerns to life with the following, reader-friendly description of the problem. The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will be in charge of fixing it. Here's the Center for Public Integrity's take, with a few practical edits:

"Most of the ground beef consumed domestically is made of beef trim, the various bits left on a carcass after the choice cuts have been butchered. A device similar to a carrot peeler is used to slice roughly 4-inch pieces of trim off the cow, which are stacked into large bins, and sent off for testing before being ground. Under the current N-60 method, inspectors test 60 of these slices for E. coli. The process is overseen by the (FSIS).

Fong warned that, in situations where E. coli is present in 1 percent of the inspected bin, the current screening method would miss it over half the time. Or, as the report puts it, “if the contamination level is very low, FSIS is more likely to miss contamination than to detect it.” 

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Nearly ten years of progress to improve how the nation prevents, identifies, and contains E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks, other disease outbreaks and bioterrorism threats faces erosion due to widespread cuts in public health spending.

That is the thrust of the "Ready or Not 2010" report released this week by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The report notes that almost a decade of gains since 2001 is in real jeopardy due to severe budget cuts by federal, state, and local governments. "The economic recession has led to cuts in public health staffing and eroded the basic capabilities of state and local health departments, which are needed to successfully respond to crises.''

A report summary said 33 states and Washington, D.C. cut public health funding from fiscal years (FY) 2008-09 to 2009-10, with 18 of these states cutting funding for the second year in a row.  The report also notes that just eight states raised funding for two or more consecutive years.  The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has found that states have experienced overall budgetary shortfalls of $425 billion since FY 2009.

While states are struggling, federal support for public health preparedness has been cut by 27 percent since FY 2005 (adjusted for inflation), the report said.  Local public health departments report losing 23,000 jobs - totaling 15 percent of the local public health workforce - since January 2008.

From a food safety standpoint,  we all depend on public health staffing to monitor and detect the cause of E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks, Salmonella outbreaks, Listeria outbreaks and outbreaks caused by other dangerous human pathogens. In fact, the entire national monitoring system for detection and tracebacks relies on close communication between doctors' offices, local, state and federal agencies with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The reporting and traceback systems must be preserved to minimize outbreaks and to hold those who distribute poisoned food accountable for their actions with food safety lawsuits.

Some key findings on the vulnerabilities in the nation's public health preparedness include:

• Seven states cannot currently share data electronically with health care providers.
• Ten states do not have an electronic syndromic surveillance system that can report and exchange information to rapidly detect disease outbreaks.
• The United States has 50,000 fewer public health workers than it did 20 years ago - and one-third of current workers are eligible to retire within five years.

The report also looked at findings from a recently released report from the CDC based on activities in 2007-08 that focus on emergency operations and food outbreak identification.: 21 states were not able to rapidly identify disease-causing E.coli O157:H7 and submit the lab results in 90 percent of cases within four days.

Click here to read the entire Ready or Not 2010 report.

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An E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak in Jasper County, Missouri, has killed a 51-year-old Carthage woman and sickened several other people, including two others who had confirmed cases of E. coli 0157:H7 infection.

Jasper County Health Department Director Tony Moehr said the outbreak stemmed from contaminated food or beverage served at the Thanksgiving family dinner November 27. An investigation is attempting to determine which food or beverage item caused the outbreak. Food contaminated with E. coli may not look or smell spoiled.  Moehr previously said the woman who died on December 8 contracted hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a complication of E. coli 0157:H7 infection that is the leading cause of E. coli death.

More than 20 people attended the family dinner and 11 experienced gastrointestinal illness. Moehr said the second confirmed E. coli infection occurred in a Jasper County resident who attended the event. A third case was reported in Dade County, also involving an attendee.  “We have identified seven or eight additional illnesses related to that gathering, but we don’t have the test results back for them. These cases occurred around the same period of time but were not as severe,'' Moehr told reporter Wally Kennedy at the Joplin Globe newspaper. 

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An HUS E. coli death in Jasper County, Missouri, is under investigation by public health officials who say the victim was one of 11 people who fell sick at a family gathering over Thanksgiving weekened.

The Jasper County Health Department has collected leftover food  from the family event as part of the effort to determine the cause of the E. coli outbreak. Health Department Director Tony Moehr told reporter John Hacker of the Carthage Press that he believes the outbreak is isolated to those exposed at the family event. Names of the victims, including the HUS E. coli  patient who died, have not been released out of respect for the family's privacy. 

HUS, or hemolytic uremic syndrome, is a life-threatening condition in which the body’s blood-clotting mechanisms are altered, causing blocked circulation or bleeding in the brain or kidneys. Kidney failure is a common result. Once an infection has been established, no therapeutic interventions are available to lessen the risk of the course that HUS will take. Across the United States, HUS E. coli kills about 80 people a year.

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E. coli in raw milk caused an outbreak of hemolytic uremic syndrome HUS in Connecticut in 2008 that has been studied by epidemiologists who have written a research paper on the topic.

On July 16, 2008, the Connecticut Department of Public Health identified two unrelated children who had experienced hemolytic uremic syndrome after consuming raw milk from the same farm. The authors investigated the situation further and found 12 more cases of people affected by raw milk from the same farm. The details of their study are chronicled in the December 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Led by Dr. Alice Guh of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the group identified 14 cases, seven of which were confirmed through genetic fingerprint testing. Five case patients required hospitalization and a total of three experienced HUS. No deaths were reported.  E. coli O157:NM outbreak strains were isolated from stool specimens of 6 case patients and 1 milking cow. The total estimated outbreak cost was $413,402. 

"Despite acceptable regulation milking standards and sanitation procedures (at the farm), it is believed that fecal contamination from an asymptomatic cow occurred during milking or the handling of milk'' causing the outbreak, the researchers stated.

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The mother of 4-year-old Kathleen Ragan told an Indianapolis television station that her daughter is severely ill with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) after touching animals at the Rush County Fair.

Angel Campbell-Ragan told 24 Hour News8 TV that Kathleen has been sick with an E. coli infection and HUS for almost three weeks and has at least 10 more days of kidney dialysis ahead of her.

The family used hand sanitizers at the county fair, but Kathleen's mother said her daughter is in the habit as a little girl to chew on her fingertips. She said her child may have ingested E. coli bacteria that was caught under her fingernails.

No outbreak has been announced by the Indiana State Department of Health, but a spokesman for the agency reminded families that animal fairs are a common transmission source for pathogens that animals shed in their manure.

HUS is a life-threatening condition in which the body’s blood-clotting mechanisms are altered, causing blocked circulation or bleeding in the brain or kidneys. Children under 5 are most likely of any age group to develop HUS, but it can harm individuals of any age.

Law firm Pritzker Olsen has years of experience representing families whose children are stricken by HUS, sometimes as a result of food poisoning and other times from animal fairs. Our experience is that children and adults often suffer long-term medical consequences, and not just with their kidneys. Strokes, heart problems, anemia, brain damage, paralysis and central nervous system damage are possible consequences.

To contact an HUS attorney at our firm, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete the contact form on the side of this web site.  Over the years we have collected millions for our clients and we are actively involved as a firm in efforts to prevent outbreaks of  E. coli and other pathogens.

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Pritzker Olsen client Emily Grabowski was featured in a May 27, 2010 New York Times article about the E. coli O145 outbreak involving fresh romaine lettuce from Freshway Foods, Sidney, Ohio.

Ms. Grabowski, a college freshman in New York, is one of 26 confirmed and 7 probable cases related to this outbreak. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

As of May 20, 2010, a total of 26 confirmed and 7 probable cases related to this outbreak have been reported from 5 states since March 1, 2010. The number of ill persons identified in each state with this strain is: MI (11 confirmed and 2 probable), NY (5 confirmed and 2 probable), OH (8 confirmed and 3 probable), PA (1 confirmed), and TN (1 confirmed). The reported cases in Tennessee and Pennsylvania do not reflect expansion of the outbreak but retrospective identification of cases using the PulseNet system – these cases are part of the original cluster due to the original implicated lot of lettuce from March.

As a result of her E. coli O145 illness, Ms. Grabowski developed Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), a potentially lethal condition known to cause severe kidney damage, neurologic deficits and hypertension.

This outbreak, another one involving leafy green vegetables, points to the need for significant regulation of an industry responsible for repeated outbreaks.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its final report on the outbreak on May 21, but so far refused to identify the farm at which the implicated romaine lettuce was grown.

Pritzker Olsen, a national food safety law firm, represents a number of people from this outbreak and is involved in virtually all major outbreaks of foodborne illness.

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Three people have contracted E. coli HUS after eating lettuce supplied by Freshway Foods of Sidney, Oklahoma. Our law firm is representing one of the HUS victims, a student at a student at Daemen College in Amherst, New York.

The other two E. coli HUS victims are students at Wappinger Falls—a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old.  The students ate romaine lettuce that had been supplied to the school district by Freshway Foods.

Other Wappingers Falls students were also sickened in this Freshway Foods lettuce E. coli outbreak. They attend Roy C. Ketcham High School, John Jay High School Wappingers Junior High School and Van Wyck Middle School.

The outbreak has sickened people in Michigan (10 confirmed and 3 probable), New York (4 confirmed and 3 probable), Ohio (8 confirmed and 1 probable), and Tennessee (1 confirmed). Among the confirmed and probable cases with reported dates available, illnesses began between April 10, 2010 and April 26, 2010. Infected individuals range in age from 13 years old to 31 years old and the median age is 19 years.

The bacteria responsible for this outbreak is E. coli O145, also referred to as O145 STEC (Shiga toxin-producing E. coli). E. coli O145 is one of several strains of non-O157 STECs. Currently, there are limited public health surveillance data on the occurrence of non-O157 STECs, including E. coli O145; therefore, E. coli O145 may go unreported. Because it is more difficult to identify than E. coli O157, many clinical laboratories do not test for non-O157 STEC infection.

Investigators have found multiple lines of evidence have implicated Freshway Foods romaine lettuce as a source of infection in this outbreak. This evidence includes the identification of the outbreak strain of E. coli O145 from an unopened package of Freshway Foods shredded romaine lettuce provided by the Wappingers Falls school district.

A Freshway Foods recall of lettuce products was issued on May 6. The recalled romaine lettuce products were sold to wholesalers and food service outlets 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 recalled romaine products were used in restaurants, cafeterias and in-store salad bars and delis for Kroger, Giant Eagle, Ingles Markets, and Marsh stores in the states listed. 

For a free consultation with an E. coli lawyer at Pritzker Olsen regarding a Freshway Foods lawsuit, please call 1-888-377-8900 (TOLL FREE) or submit our online consultation form.

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E. coli O157:H7 was declared an adulterant in ground beef in 1994, but USDA has failed to put six additional strains of shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC) in the same category. 

Members of the food safety community, including law firm Pritzker Olsen, have been calling for the expanded ruling so that producers of meat are required to test for the potentially deadly pathogens to help protect our food supply.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has launched an E. coli O157:H7  investigation into the suppliers of ground beef to WinCo Foods, a supermarket chain with stores in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Utah.

The probe, assisted by the California Department of Public Health, is in connection with a WinCo hamburger E. coli problem. The company originally recalled ground beef sold from April 3-9 at is Modesto, California, store. An independent lab had found E. coli contamination in two samples of the meat.

Preliminary findings in the WinCo E. coli investigation prompted a widening of the recall to include fresh hamburger with sale dates of March 28-April 9.

USDA spokesman Neil Gaffney told the Modesto Bee newspaper that the agency is investigating the suppliers of the ground beef and attempting to determine how the contamination occurred and the point of contamination.

"We are also trying to determine all potentially infected products," he said.

No confirmed illnesses have yet been reported, but health officials are urging any consumers of recalled WinCo hamburger to immediately see a physician if they have suffered E. coli poisoning symptoms.

For answers to legal questions about an E. coli illness, call national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete the contact form on the side of this Web page. We represent victims of food poisoning in virtually all major E. coli outbreaks, including families of children who suffer hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) or an associated disease in adults known as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura ((TTP). 

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Our law firm recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of a husband and wife who contracted E. coli O157:H7 infections after eating beef at a barbecue restaurant. We sued the beef processor, a distributor of the meat and the barbecue restaurant that served the couple the meal that made them sick.

The husband was hospitalized with severe bloody diarrhea and cramps. The wife also suffered bloody diarrhea and cramps, but she developed TTP-HUS, a complication of an E. coli O157:H7 infection that can cause kidney failure, brain injuries, heart damage, other serious injuries and death.  She spent two months in the hospital and almost died several times.

An E. coli outbreak in Honolulu, Hawaii that sickened at least seven people in March also involves a barbecue restaurant, Peppa’s Korean BBQ. The Peppa’s E. coli may be the result of food handling violations that closed the restaurant down yesterday. According to the Honolulu Advisor:

After it was confirmed that some of those sickened by E. coli 0157:H7 had eaten at Peppa's, state Sanitation Branch inspectors were dispatched to the restaurant, where they observed food-handling violations….

Those violations, coupled with confirmation of the Peppa's connection, caused inspectors to issue a "notice of permit suspension" and a cease-and-desist order against the restaurant at about 10 a.m. yesterday….

To contact a lawyer at Pritzker Olsen about the Peppa’s E. coli outbreak, please call 1-888-377-8900 (TOLL FREE), email Attorney Fred Pritzker or submit our online form for a free consultation.

Keywords: Peppa’s E. coli, lawsuit, Honolulu E. coli, lawyer, attorney, Peppa’s Korean Barbecue, hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), thrombotic thrombocytopenic pupura (TTP), child E. coli.

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 An investigation into a cluster of child E. coli cases in Belgium, Wisconsin, is continuing, but the Ozaukee County health officer has issued a press release saying the illnesses could have been caused by eating contaminated snow or ice.

In addition, the children had close contact with each other and could have passed it to each other, officials said.

A news release from the office of Ozaukee Health Officer Glenda Madlom said interviews conducted with family members for all three E. coli cases were unable to identify a common food item or other definite source of infection. "The source has not been absolutely determined but a possible explanation includes close contact or a common environmental source, such as contaminated snow or ice,'' the news release said.

The investigation -- aided by the state health department --  has identified two laboratory-confirmed cases of E. coli O157:H7 infection in siblings. One had onset in December and one had onset in January. A third case was identified in a neighbor who had onset in December and tested negative for E. coli infection, but is considered a probable case based on clinical symptoms.

Two of the three patients were hospitalized, and one remains hospitalized. At least one has developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening complication of E coli O157:H7 infection that is the leading cause of kidney failure in children.

 The Ozaukee Health Department also is investigating a case of laboratory-confirmed cryptosporidiosis in a child from the same neighborhood. At this time there is no evidence that this infection is related to the three E. coli cases, however the investigation is ongoing. Both cryptosporidium and E. coli are found on farms and in animal manure and Belgium is in a farming area.

As a precaution, the Village of Belgium tested its water supply over the weekend and determined that the water is safe. In addition, the health department is working closely with the DNR and the Ozaukee County Department of Land and Water to assist in evaluating environmental concerns. 

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has obtained a judicial decree enabling it to shut down a Maryland fish distributor that has ignored the agency's warnings to abide by food safety laws.

The company in question is Congressional Seafood Co. Inc. of Jessup, Maryland. It supplies raw tuna and other fish for sushi and sashimi in addition to handling fresh and vacuum-packed crab meat, frozen octopus and shrimp and molluscan shellfish. Its market area includes New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Virginia and Pennsylvania.

 FDA said past violations have included failure to document that fish were refrigerated at appropriate temperatures, failure to keep fish species separate to avoid cross-contamination, failure to meet sanitation standards or keep records of compliance, and failure to verify that imported fish met FDA standards. The practices pose a public health risk because the fish products are well-known sources of E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridium botulinum,Salmonella and other pathogens capable of causing serious health injury and death.

The decree, signed by U.S. District Judge Benson E. Legg, allows FDA to shut down Congressional Seafood, recall its products or take other corrective action in the event of future violations.

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In a ground-breaking post that appeared on this web site a full week before the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced a recall of  contaminated beef produced by National Steak and Poultry company, we were the first to forewarn the public of a blade-tenderized steak E. coli outbreak related to restaurants.

The NSP recall December 24th of 248,000 pounds of boneless steaks in connection with a cluster of  E. coli O157:H7 illnesses in six states is proof of the outbreak, but the government's recall notice is essentially useless since it fails to identify the restaurants at which the adulterated steaks were served. Without confirmation of that crucial information, the millions of consumers who eat steak at U.S. restaurants are left with no practical information about whether they were exposed to  this potentially deadly pathogen.

E. coli O157:H7 is an organism that produces a powerful toxin in humans, initially making them sick with extremely painful diarrhea that is often bloody. In more than 5 percent of cases, infections lead to a life-threatening condition known as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which is the leading cause of kidney failure in children. Another disease associated with E. coli O157:H7 is thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). 

To any person of reasonable intelligence, the decision to withhold restaurant names smacks of favoritism: Protecting the “good name” of national restaurant chains at the expense of vulnerable people who eat at them. Our law firm calls upon FSIS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to end their silence on this outbreak and promptly inform the American public of all the names of all the restaurants at which this recalled beef was served. 

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 A multi-state restaurant steak E. coli outbreak has been associated with steaks distributed in restaurants nationwide made by National Steak and Poultry of Owasso, Oklahoma.

The company on Thursday recalled 248,000 pounds of steak products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, a virulent pathogen that can lead to life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) ,

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced in a news release that it has been investigating the problem with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with state health officials, and has determined there is an association between blade-tenderized, non-intact steaks and a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Washington.

FSIS said National Steak and Poultry packaged the recalled steaks on October 12, 13, 14 and 21 and shipped them to restaurants nationwide. The news release did not identify the restaurants, nor did it say how many people have been infected with the outbreak strain of HUS E. coli from steak.

Anyone with signs of illness should immediately see a physician. For answers to legal questions, call national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen at 1-888-377-8900 or by completing our online contact and information form on the side of this web page. We have been investigating this outbreak for more than a week and already have been contacted by at least one potential victim.

Our law firm is involved in practically all major outbreaks of foodborne illness and we have recovered tens of millions of dollars for clients, including patients who have contracted E. coli O157:H7 from eating mechanically tenderized steak served by national restaurant chains.

In these cases, victims have special rights under the law because it is illegal to sell non-intact cuts of beef -- those that have been pierced with blade tenderizers or injected with flavoring such as brine -- if the meat is contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. Studies have shown the processes can drive surface E. coli that is normally killed in the grilling process into the center of the cut, where it can survive if the steak is served rare or medium rare (under 140 degrees Fahrenheit).

For a complete view of the National Steak and Poultry recall list, click here.

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The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has added another year of results to its standing analysis of foodborne disease outbreak investigations and the biggest new finding is that states are completing fewer probes than at any time in the past decade.

The "Outbreak Alert!'' report said that nearly 1,100 outbreaks -- including E. coli HUS outbreaks --were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2007 (the latest year of completed figures), but in only 378 cases did states identify both a food and the pathogen, which is the mark of a completed investigation.

In the early years, the number of completed outbreak investigations improved and reached a high of 44 percent in 2001. "Unfortunately, the percentage has gradually declined from 44 percent to 34 percent in 2007, the lowest percentage of fully investigated outbreaks in any year since 1999,'' the report said.

CSPI  says the results suggest that states may have been devoting fewer resources to tracking down the causes of outbreaks. Such a trend is troubling in a food safety system that depends heavily on state and local health departments for detection of outbreaks.

Fewer completed investigations mean that less information is available to the CDC -- downgrading their ability to identify problems in the food safety system or issue recalls to protect the public.

The latest findings by CSPI are another reason why national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen is actively pushing for the completion of food safety reform legislation that began this year with passage of a bill in the House of Representatives. Sometime in 2010, the Senate will take up the issue, which the Obama Administration has identified as a priority.

An important element of the food safety overhaul calls for beefing up the network of detection via more resources to regionally strong labs and better communication between state and federal public health investigators. That is the kind of approach the U.S. needs to shift to a food safety culture that is more focused on preventing disease and limiting the spread of outbreaks.

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 Two experienced microbiologists who work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say they were as surprised as anyone to find E. coli O157:H7 in Nestle cookie dough this year.

Writing in a new Public Health Matters blog for the CDC, Gerry Gomez and Mike Humphrys said the lab work they did at the CDC was examined in conjunction with  similar work by 13 public health laboratories around the country. Together, they tested cookie dough from 164 different packages.

"We found that the chocolate chip cookie dough that sick people had eaten didn't come from only one batch,'' the two scientists wrote. "We found it was produced over several months.''

The outbreak itself peaked during May and June. By the end of July, according to a CDC summary, there were 80 confirmed illnesses in 31 states. Thirty-five of the victims received hospital treatment and 10 developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) -- a disease that attacks a person's red blood cells and causes serious illness including kidney failure, strokes, heart problems and other damage. HUS also is the leading cause of E. coli deaths, most often affecting young children, the elderly or others who have weakened immune systems.

Like everyone else, including the national food safety lawyers at Pritzker Olsen attorneys who represent victims of E. coli poisoning, Gomez and Humphrys wrote that they are far more accustomed to seeing E. coli outbreaks caused by contaminated and undercooked hamburger or by unpasteurized apple juice.

They also noted that they isolated  E. coli O157:H7 bacteria from the cookie dough by making a slurry from the dough and dropping ultra tiny magnetic beads into the slurry. If there was going to be any E. coli bacteria, it would attach to the beads, which were only 5 percent as wide as a human hair.

From there, a bigger magnet was used to pull out the beads.... giving the scientists a better chance of isolating E. coli.

"Even experienced microbiologists who have 'seen it all' can be surprised and challenged by an old bacteria turning up in a new place,'' the  experts wrote. 

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