Personal Injury Law

Pane d'Amore, Raw Milk and Dungeness Valley Creamery - What is missing?

By Food Poisoning Lawyer

Pane d'Amore is a new little specialty shop (one of many) on Bainbridge Island that sells wine, cheese, fresh bread, but here, yes, they sell raw milk. You would have thought that the owners of Pane d' Amore would have checked the White Pages on Bainbridge Island, or at least 'googled' - raw milk lawyer – before they opened shop.

I stopped in today to try and support a new, local (they opened their first shop about 45 minutes away in Port Townsend), business to buy some of the fresh bread. The shop was well stocked and the workers friendly. In the cooler they seemed well stocked with cheeses I could not pronounce. And, then I saw the milk bottles. Some were glass and some were glass but unlabeled. From what I could tell they were organic, but not raw – I think, but it is hard to tell. The plastic bottles to the right were labeled raw, but quite small. They clearly came from Dungeness Valley Creamery. This dairy had become famous for being part of an E. coli outbreak, a front-page article in the Seattle Times and shared the distinction of being pulled by Whole Foods. But, here the plastic bottles of raw milk were.

So, what was missing? The warning label on the plastic bottle was there, but the warning sign that is supposed to be in the store (below) was missing:

WAC 246-215-051 Public health labeling. (1) Whenever unpasteurized milk and foods containing unpasteurized milk are offered for sale at a food establishment, except hard or semi-soft raw milk cheeses properly fermented and aged for a minimum of sixty days in compliance with 21 CFR Part 133, the permit holder and person in charge must ensure that:

(a) The product is conspicuously labeled "RAW MILK" or "CONTAINS RAW MILK"; and

(b) A sign is posted in a conspicuous manner near the product stating:

"WARNING: RAW MILK OR FOODS PREPARED FROM RAW MILK MAY BE CONTAMINATED WITH DANGEROUS BACTERIA CAPABLE OF CAUSING SEVERE ILLNESS. CONTACT YOUR LOCAL HEALTH AGENCY FOR ADVICE OR TO REPORT A SUSPECTED ILLNESS."

(2) The permit holder and person in charge must ensure that required information contained on food labels is in the English language, except that duplicate labeling in other languages is allowed.

I decided to skip the bread.

Full post as published by Marler Blog on June 13, 2010 (boomark / email).