E. coli Lawsuit Looms in Cheese Startup
An E. coli lawsuit against Bravo Farms and Costco looms as a check against the cheese E. coli outbreak that sickened 38 people in five Western states as Bravo Farms returns this month to making cheese at its creamery in Tulare, California.
Law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A., and its local counsel filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Arizona on behalf of four family members who suffered infections of E. coli O157:H7 matching the outbreak strain after eating Bravo Farms Dutch Style Gouda cheese at a Costco store in Glendale, Arizona, on October 15, 2010. Costco, which sold and sampled the cheese in Arizona, Colorado, California, New Mexico and Nevada, also is named in the lawsuit. E. coli attorney Fred Pritzker, founder and president of PritzkerOlsen, also represents three other victims of the outbreak. If you or a loved one suffered gastrointestinal illness after sampling or buying cheese at Costco in October or November, you may have a claim in this outbreak to recoup medical costs and receive other compensation. Mr. Pritzker can be reached at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our Bravo Farms E. coli lawsuit contact form.
E. coli O157:H7 can cause one of the most severe forms of foodborne illness and public health investigators at the federal and state level detected the exact strain of this pathogen in packages of Bravo Farms Dutch Style Gouda cheese as was found in the 38 case patients. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) counts this outbreak as one of only two multi-state outbreaks of E. coli 0157:H7 to happen in 2010. The cheese was made from raw milk, which the CDC and FDA has warned for years is at risk for contamination from an assortment of pathogens carried by cows.
Bravo Farms co-owner Jonathan Van Ryn told The Business Journal in Fresno that Bravo Farms is working exclusively with pasteurized milk while restarting cheese-making operations after a long shutdown related to the outbreak. Van Ryn told the newspaper that Bravo Farms might make raw milk cheese again but likely would age it longer than the 60-day requirement. He also said Costco is willing to do business with the company in the future but that there is no plan to sell cheese there in the next couple months. Van Ryn said that in all the investigation related to the outbreak, no one determined how the gouda cheese became contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
