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

Salmonella food poisoning is defying U.S. prevention efforts even while progress is being made to stop a more feared pathogen: E. coli O157:H7. Those are the headlines from an annual report on foodborne illness produced by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The report found broad declines in several foodborne infections, including E. coli O157:H7. But Salmonella infections, which cause the largest numbers of illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths of any pathogen under surveillance in the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), have not declined during the past decade, the CDC said. FoodNet conducts surveillance among 15 percent of the U.S. population for laboratory-confirmed infections with nine pathogens transmitted commonly through food.  

By comparison, the rate of E. coli O157 cases reported by FoodNet sites was .9 cases per 100,000 people, down substantially from 1997 when FoodNet measured 2 cases per 100,000 people. The nearly 50 percent reduction in E. coli O157 incidence is considered significant when compared to the lack of change in Salmonella incidence. 

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Yale researchers have discovered something about Salmonella that might lead to a new class of anit-microbial therapies that would neutralize the pathogen once inside the human body.

The findings were published this week in Science Express and summarized by the university's public relations department. Salmonella is a leading cause of food poisoning in the United States -- the No. 1 cause of food poisoning hospitalizations and deaths. Salmonella outbreaks sicken 1.2 million people annually and kill about 400, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Yale research is all the more interesting because Salmonella and other pathogens have been showing resistance to traditional antibiotics. According to Yale sources, here's what the new study by senior author Jorge Galan found:

Salmonella bacteria rely on a sorting platform or molecular machine that attracts needed proteins and lines them up in a specific order.  If the proteins do not line up properly, Salmonella, as well as many other bacterial pathogens, cannot "inject" them into host cells to commandeer host cell functions. Understanding how this machine works raises the possibility that new therapies can be developed which disable this protein delivery machine and therefore thwart the ability of the bacterium to become pathogenic. This process would not kill the bacteria as most antibiotics do, but would cripple its ability to do harm. 

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With the upcoming one year anniversary of her death weighing heavily on family members, they have joined a group representing 27 people affected by the outbreak by writing a letter to members of the U.S. Senate to pass Senate Bill 510 -- a food safety reform act that should be headed to the Senate floor in the near future. 

The families of the victims have written a letter to members of the Senate to honor their word and quickly pass the food safety bill to prevent future outbreaks. The legislation would be paired with language already adopted in the House. The changes -- designed to make our system more preventative than reactive -- have been pushed by President Obama. 

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Peanut Corporation of America apparently ignored an order from theTexas Department of State Health Services to recall all the products ever made at its plant in Plainview, Texas.

That's what the state agency said in a press release Friday. Health officials in that state are stepping in to execute the product recall on their own. The action will involve going through the company's customer lists and notifying those entities of the recall.

The recall was ordered Feb. 12, coinciding roughly with the company's decision to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy/liquidation and go out of business. The press release said health officials never got a response from the company regarding the recall.

David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of Health Services, is notifying PCA Chief Executive Officer Parnell Stewart that the agency will seek payment from the company for the cost of doing the recall.

PCA has been blamed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for causing a 44-state outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium that has sickened more than 654 people and killed nine. PCA's plant in Blakely, Georgia, shipped peanut butter and other peanut products that contained the bacteria.

Fred Pritzker, founder and president of national food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen Attorneys, has filed a Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit against PCA and King Nut Companies, a distributor of PCA's peanut butter. PritzkerOlsen represents peanut butter Salmonella clients from around the country, including the families of three women who died in the outbreak.

To contact our firm, please call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or complete a free case consultation form.  

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Two top executives of Peanut Corporation of America  (PCA) refused to testify Wednesday before a Congressional subcommittee investigating a nationwide Salmonella outbreak that has been associated with nine deaths and more than 600 illnesses.

But while Stewart Parnell, PCA's chief executive, and Sammy Lightsey, manager of the PCA plant in Blakely, Georgia, pleaded the Fifth Amendment to protect themselves against possible self-incrimination, members of Congress released copies of e-mails  that they traded inside the company regarding Salmonella.

Cornell University food safety professor Joseph Hotchkiss told The Associated Press that what he saw in the documents "might be interpreted as reckless disregard for the health of the consuming public.'' He said the documents show "abundant concern for PCA but little regard for the health and well-being of the people.''

On Sept. 29, 2008, for example, Lightsey e-mailed Parnell to note a positive test result for Salmonella in a lot of 441 cases of peanut granules produced four days earlier. They were being retested, but results weren't expected for another four days. Parnell responded: "We need to discuss this... the time lapse, besides the cost is costing us huge $$$$$ and causing obviously a huge lapse in time from the time we pick up peanuts until the time we can invoice.''

An e-mail from Lightsey to Parnell on Aug. 11  talked about a previous positive test result for Salmonella in products at the Blakely plant. Another firm retested the products and when they were deemed "clean'' on Aug. 21,' Parnell wrote an e-mail the same day saying, "Okay, let's turn them loose then.''

Despite the obvious dealings with Salmonella in 2008, Parnell wrote an e-mail on Jan. 12, 2009, that was circulated widely to company personnel. "As you probably know, we send hourly PB samples to an independent lab to test for Salmonella during production of peanut butter, and we have never found any Salmonella at all.''

By then, Minnesota health officials had taken samples of peanut butter produced by PCA and found Salmonella bacteria that was a genetic match to the outbreak strain. But Parnell wrote in his e-mail that the open container of peanut butter must have been cross-contaminated somewhere else, long after leaving the plant.

"Don't worry,'' the e-mail said. "We are well positioned to deal with this event no matter what happens... we were not the cause of this outbreak.''

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The FBI on Monday raided facilities owned by Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), the company that federal authorities blame for the nationwide Salmonella outbreak that has been associated with eight deaths, including three in Minnesota.

The Associated Press said agents executed search warrants at PCA headquarters in Lynchburg, Virginia, and at the company's idle processing plant in Blakely, Georgia. Television cameras filmed the agents entering the facilities and carrying out boxes and other items.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified the Georgia plant as the cause of the Salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 575 people in 43 states. The outbreak also has led to the largest food poisoning product recall in U.S. history, involving more than 1,750 items made by hundreds of different companies.

The FDA previously announced that PCA was under criminal investigation in connection with the outbreak, which peaked in December but is still ongoing.

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled Wednesday to hold a hearing on outbreak. The AP reported that the subcommittee chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., has called a meeting on Tuesday to issue a subpoena compelling testimony from PCA president Stewart Parnell.

The FDA has said it found instances of PCA knowingly shipping product that had tested positive for Salmonella, a deadly pathogen that is especially dangerous for small children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems.

Besides facing criminal investigation, the company is facing a wrongful death lawsuit filed in Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis by PritzkerOlsen Attorneys. The national food safety law firm represents the families of two Minnesotans who died in the outbreak. The victims are Shirley Mae Almer, 72, of Perham and Doris Flatgard, 87, who had been living in a nursing home in Brainerd.

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Dr. Stephen Sundlof of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave testimony this week in which he said more than 1,000 entries have been made into the agency's searchable database for product recalls related to the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak.

Products in 16 categories made by more than 75 different companies are in the database and the recall list continues to grow. The list of potentially contaminated products includes tens of thousands of ready-to-eat meals warehoused by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

FEMA issued a photo of what a peanut butter pack looks like from those meals. The agency mistakenly shipped 168,000 of the recalled meal kits to ice storm victims in Kentucky and then warned people not to eat them.

The outbreak is in its sixth month and new cases continue to be confirmed. The latest count from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is 575 illnesses in 43 states. CDC says the outbreak strain of Salmonella may have contributed to eight deaths, including three in Minnesota.

PritzkerOlsen Attorneys represents clients from the outbreak  including the families of two of the Minnesotans who died -- Shirley Mae Almer, 72, of Perham, and Doris Flatgard, 87, who had been living at a nursing home in Brainerd.

A PritzkerOlsen wrongful death peanut butter lawsuit  has already been fiiled in Hennepin County District Court on behalf of Almer's heirs. The lawsuit alleges negligence on the part of Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) and King Nut Companies, a distributor of PCA peanut butter. PritzkerOlsen president and founder Fred Pritzker said he will soon file a second wrongful death lawsuit for the family of Mrs. Flatgard.

Sundlof said in testimony this week that the FDA has additional evidence that PCA distributed products from its plant in Blakely, Georgia, knowing  that they had tested positive for Salmonella. Sundlof said FDA's Office of Criminal Investigation is continuing to probe the company's actions. Already the FDA has said that its inspectors have uncovered deficiencies that indicate the plant was not compliant with Current Food Manufacturing Practices required by FDA.

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The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration have launched a joint criminal investigation into the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak that federal health officials have said was caused by the Blakely, Georgia, processing plant of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA).

The probe was announced by the FDA's Dr. Stephen Sundlof in a conference call Friday with reporters. Earlier in the week, FDA officials said there were 12 recorded instances of PCA knowlingly shipping product to customers after it tested positive for Salmonella. The company had the product retested before shipping, the FDA has said.

Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported Friday that PCA and the FDA fought last year over a shipment of chopped peanuts that contained a "filthy, putrid or decomposed substance'' and was returned to the U.S. from Canada. The chopped peanuts were made at PCA's processing plant in Blakely.

The incident occurred in April 2008. FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek said the shipment was rejected as an import by the FDA for filth. The FDA rejected as "unacceptable'' the findings by a private lab that PCA hired to win the release of the product. The company later agreed to have the chopped peanuts destroyed.

The Associated Press story said the FDA never tested the product itself.

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee has set Feb. 11 in Washington for a public hearing on the Salmonella outbreak. Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said the early list of invited speakers includes Stewart Parnell, president and owner of PCA, and Frank Torti, acting commission of the FDA.

According to theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, the current Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak has sickened 529 persons in 43 states. A total of 116 patients were reported hospitalized and the infections may have contributed to eight deaths, including three in Minnesota.

Two of the Minnesota cases are being handled by leading food safety attorney Fred Pritzker of Minneapolis. Pritzker early this week filed the first Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit against PCA on behalf of the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer, 72, who died Dec. 21 after eating contaminated peanut butter from the Georgia plant.

Pritzker has said a second lawsuit will be filed on behalf of the family of Doris Flatgard, 87. Both women had been living in Good Samaritan nursing homes in Brainerd.

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Federal lawmakers say they will hold hearings soon to examine ways to strengthen food safety laws to protect against  a repeat of food poisoning outbreaks like the current one involving Salmonella Typhimurium and peanut products made at a plant in South Georgia.

The wave of 500 illnesses and up to eight deaths that are now linked to the Blakely, Georgia, plant of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) has exposed at least one major regulatory gap: Food companies don't have to report possible contamination of their plants when internal testing shows positive results for pathogens like Salmonella.

 The issue was explored today in a news story by The Associated Press that quoted Minneapolis lawyer Fred Pritzker and other nationally recognized food safety experts. Infuriated by the loophole, food safety advocates and lawmakers want legislation that would mandate companies to alert authorities at the first sign of trouble.

In the case of Peanut Corporation of America, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration said this week that the company did not alert state or federal authorities when the company documented 12 positive tests for Salmonella between 2007 and 2008. There were no requirements to report the results and the company continued to ship product after retesting came up negative, the FDA said.

Pritzker, who represents the next-of-kin of two people who died in the outbreak, said he doubts any states have such a requirement because those requirements would be more restrictive than the federal government.

Pritzker, the founder and president of Pritzker | Olsen, P.A., a national food safety law firm, filed a Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit  Monday against PCA for the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer, 72, of Perham. Mrs. Almer died Dec. 21 with a Salmonella infection matching the outbreak strain. She had eaten peanut butter made at the Georgia plant before any of the product had been recalled. Minnesota health officials later confirmed that the peanut butter in use at Mrs. Almer's nursing home contained the same strain of Samonella alive in the outbreak.

Pritzker also represents the family of Doris Flatguard, 87, another Minnesota nursing home resident who died after developing a Salmonella infection tied to peanut butter produced by PCA. A lawsuit in that case is expected to be filed soon.

According to The AmLaw Daily, PCA may be represented by Alan Maxwell, a partner in Atlanta-based Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial. Pritzker has been up against Maxwell in foodborne illness cases in the past.

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