Personal Injury Law

A non-adulterant - E. coli O45 - causes seven illnesses at Zillman Meat Market - It is time for the FSIS to act

By Bill Marler, Esq.

An E. coli O45 Outbreak that has sickened seven has been linked to Zillman Meat Market according to the Marathon County Department of Health.

As I have said a few times, it has been over a year since we filed the Petition for an Interpretive Rule Declaring enterohemorrhagic Shiga Toxin-producing Serotypes of Escherichia coli, Including Non-O157 Serotypes, to be Adulterants Within the Meaning of 21 U.S.C. § 601(m)(1) with the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS). Since I filed the Petition in October 2009, I have also filed two supplements – See, First and Second.  When I filed the Petition, Mead, et. al., estimated that non-O157 STECs (like O26, O45, 0103, O111, O121, and O145) caused 36,00 illnesses, 1,000 hospitalizations and 30 deaths in America each year. Now, admittedly, vectors overseen by FSIS caused not all, or most, of these illnesses and deaths, but clearly some have (like O26).  However, late last month, the CDC released the new estimates of illnesses caused by non-O157 STECs has risen to over 160,000 ill yearly. Hospitalizations and deaths are lower because many non-O157 STECs do not cause severe illness, but O26, O45, 0103, O111, O121, and O145 certainly do.  It is time for FSIS to move forward on deeming at least O26 (arguably already does), O45, 0103, O111, O121, and O145 adulterants. With the numbers from the CDC of ill higher, and two of the 'big six' linked to meat, it is time for the government to act before more people are sickened or before a Court forces them to do their job.

Full post as published by Marler Blog on January 05, 2011 (boomark / email).