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Health Law

Food Poison Blog

Surveillance and analysis on food poison news and outbreaks.
By Marler Clark

Post Frequency: 17.6/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 12:57:03

Dunkin Doughnuts' Salmonella Worries

Posted on July 03, 2009
I'm no longer surprised when we get word of an outbreak associated with some new, seemingly innocuous food item. Cookie dough for Christ's sake. Elissa Elan reported this week that Dunkin Doughnuts learned that its supplier of instant non-fat dried milk and whey protein (Plainview Milk Products Cooperative of Plainview, Minn) had detected Salmonella on some of its equipment used to produce the products...

Six Michigan Victims in JBS Swift E. coli O157:H7 Outbreak

Posted on July 02, 2009
Michigan is no stranger to outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 . . . particularly over the course of the last year. The CDC reports six culture-confirmed, PFGE matched cases in the JBS Swift outbreak and recall. Michigan also counted many of its residents as victims in the E...

95 People Stricken by E. coli-tainted Cookies and Meat - Nestle and JBS Swift - Time to Take Care of Your Customers

Posted on July 02, 2009
In the last several weeks Nestle and JBS Swift customers have been hospitalized (some still are) with medical bills in the millions of dollars. Those that developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), face a life-time of kidney and bowel complications that will cost families tens of millions of dollars...

FSIS and JBS Swift reveal partial distribution of E. coli Tainted Meat

Posted on July 02, 2009
More than a week after JBS Swift initiated a nationwide recall of E. coli-tainted meat, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and JBS Swift have taken the necessary steps of alerting consumers as to which retail outlets received the beef...

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An E. coli free 4th of July

Posted on July 02, 2009
There are a few key elements to having a good 4th of July. First, don't shoot off your fireworks by hand. Second, illegal fireworks are fun, but they're illegal for a reason, so see #1 if you're planning to light any M 1000's. Third, watch the Seattle fireworks from our offices, where you can simultaneously see the shows at the Space Needle, Lake Union, and maybe even Bill's house (Marler, not Gates, though Gates has been known to put on quite a show too) Finally, and far more importantly than the size or amount of fireworks you light, grill safely...

CDC Announces Link Between JBS Swift and 17 E. coli O157:H7 Illnesses in California, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Wisconsin

Posted on July 01, 2009
Several state health departments, CDC, and the United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS) are investigating a multi-state outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 infections. On June 24, FSIS issued a notice about a recall of 41,280 pounds of beef products from JBS Swift Beef Company that may be contaminated with E...

Food Democracy Now Weighs in on Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Leader

Posted on July 01, 2009
Dave Murphy - Food Safety First - Help Send Bill Marler Packin' to DC! It's time to get serious about food safety. The USDA has yet to appoint the Under Secretary for Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) – and it's time that we had a real reformer at the USDA...

PR Lessons from a Multi-Billion Dollar Corporation - Nestle Goes Part of the Way in Dealing with its E. coli O157:H7 Problem

Posted on June 30, 2009
From a Nestle press release from yesterday afternoon: Nestle USA's Baking Division was informed today by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that it has found and confirmed evidence of E. coli 0 (sic – its a O) 157:H7 in a retained production sample of 16...

E. Coli Outbreak Investigation Tries To Solve Mystery By Turning Focus To Nestle Flour Supplier

Posted on June 30, 2009
Nestle USA's flour supplier for its Danville, VA cookie dough plant is now the focus of a joint investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The name of the flour supplier was not made available...

How to Safely Cook a Burger (NOT according to the USDA)

Posted on June 30, 2009
Yesterday, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service issued a largely useless, but still widely published, news release entitled 'Independence Day: Drills for the Grill.' See News Release, www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/NR_062909_01/index...

CDC Reports 72 E. coli O157:H7 Illnesses in 30 States Linked to Nestle Cookie Dough

Posted on June 30, 2009
As of Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 72 persons infected with a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular DNA fingerprint have been reported from 30 states. Of these, 51 have been confirmed by an advanced DNA test as having the outbreak strain; these confirmatory test results are pending on the others...

July 4th BBQ? Don't Cook to Color, Use A Thermometer for All Ground Beef

Posted on June 30, 2009
As we head into the holiday weekend, we are In the midst of another outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 related to ground beef. Remarkably, despite the prevalence of outbreaks and the severity of the risks involved, the proper messages on handling and preparing ground beef can still prove elusive...

Minnesota Company Recalls Milk Products Over Salmonella Fears

Posted on June 29, 2009
The FDA announced a recall of milk products on its website yesterday: Plainview Milk Products Cooperative, Plainview, Minn., is voluntarily recalling instant nonfat dried milk, whey protein, fruit stabilizers, and gums (thickening agents) that it has manufactured over the past two years, because they might be contaminated with Salmonella...

The "Guess Who Inspects It Game": Nestle E. coli Cookie Dough Edition

Posted on June 29, 2009
The recent (and still unfolding) E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to contaminated Toll House cookie dough manufactured by Nestle has no shortage of lessons to teach, including the reminder that this deadly pathogen can find its way into nearly any food product if sufficient care is not taken during its manufacture...

How do you teach your friends about food safety?

Posted on June 29, 2009
This Saturday, I met three friends for lunch. As the conversation got underway, one of them asked me how working at Marler Clark had changed my eating habits. It's a question I hear all the time, and one I have a ready answer for. I don't eat sprouts...

ABC Brian Hartman Reports - "Smoking Gun" Found in Nestle Cookie Dough E. coli Scare

Posted on June 29, 2009
E. coli O157:H7 was found today at the Danville, Virginia plant Nestle makes Toll House Cookie Dough. According to Brian Hartman of ABC News and the Associated Press, According to an FDA official, the bacteria was found at the plant in an unopened package of raw chocolate chip cookie dough...

CDC - 24 Illnesses in Multiple States Appear Linked - JBS Swift Beef Company Expands Recall of Beef Products to over 420,000 Pounds Due To E. coli O157:H7 Contamination

Posted on June 28, 2009
It appears that E. coli season is now upon us with what now appears to be the 8th recall of the year. On June 24 JBS Swift Beef Company (former ConAgra Plant famous for 2002 E. coli Outbreak) recalled approximately 41,280 pounds of beef products contaminated with E...

JBS Swift E. coli Recalls Linked to Illnesses in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin? And Canada?

Posted on June 28, 2009
Sometime in the early hours of June 28, JBS Swift Beef Company expanded the approximately 40,000 pounds of 'assorted beef primals' recalled on June 24 to include another approximately 380,000 pounds of 'assorted beef primals" due to E. coli O157:H7 contamination...

Marler Clark Calls for JBS Swift and FSIS to Reveal Retail Distribution of E. coli-Tainted Beef - Contaminated Meat Has Sickened at Least Eighteen to Twenty-four People

Posted on June 28, 2009
In the early morning hours of Sunday, June 28, the JBS Swift Beef Company expanded the earlier recall of 41,280 pounds of beef contaminated with the highly toxic pathogen E. coli O157:H7 to include an additional 380,000 pounds. The beef recalls are FSIS Class I, meaning the 'use of the product will cause serious, adverse health consequences or death...

"Where's The (Recalled) Beef? Massive Expansion of JBS Beef Linked To Multi-State E. Coli O157:H7 Outbreak And Still No List of Retailers From FSIS

Posted on June 28, 2009
At least when Nestle USA announced that it was recalling all its Toll House cookie products, the public pretty much knew which retailers were involved. Every retail grocery in the country provides generous space for Nestle products. Nestle is currently at the center of the largest E...

William Marler Opinion - Sellers of E. coli - Stop Blaming the Victims

Posted on June 27, 2009
'It was not the failure of the cookie dough manufacturer for not keeping cattle feces (E. coli) out of cookie dough that sickened the child, it is the fault of the parent who allowed the child to eat the dough.' I have received several calls and emails like the above over the last few days as the country has been ensnared once again in a nationwide recall – this time cookie dough – that has sickened at least 69 in 30 States – mostly people (girls) under the age of 18...

William Marler Opinion - Who Poisoned Our Cookies With E. coli?

Posted on June 27, 2009
What if the cookie dough E. coli outbreak actually happened this way? At 10:00 PM last night between yet another story about Michael Jackson's death, a foreign Network begin airing a video taken inside a manufacturing facility showing someone treating a batch of cookie dough with an unknown liquid...

William Marler Opinion - E. coli O157:H7 is a deadly bacterium - How to Fight Back!

Posted on June 27, 2009
You cannot see it, taste it, or smell it. 250,000 E. coli O157:H7 (E. coli) bacteria will fit on the head of a pin. Ten to 50 will kill your child or your grandmother. More likely due the expertise of Children's Hospitals, and other top medical centers around the country, deaths at times are avoided, however, just last week – on Father's Day – I met with yet another family grieving over the loss of a child to Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS)...

69 Ill in 29 States with E. coli O157:H7 Linked to Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough - 34 Hospitalized - 9 with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome

Posted on June 26, 2009
69 persons infected with a strain of E. coli O157:H7 with a particular DNA fingerprint have been reported from 29 states. Of these, 46 have been confirmed by an advanced DNA test as having the outbreak strain; these confirmatory test results are pending on the others...

Oregon Department of Agriculture Issues Mussel Warning

Posted on June 26, 2009
The Oregon Department of Agriculture announced today that beaches from the south jetty of the Columbia River to Neptune State Park, south of Yachats, have been closed to recreational mussel harvesting due to the presence of paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins in those areas...

Genetic Fingerprinting - PFGE and MLVA - Scientists Expand Testing Methodology to Distinguish Cookie Dough E. coli Illness Cases

Posted on June 26, 2009
The CDC has confirmed that 69 people, ages 2 to 67, are linked to an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to the consumption of refrigerated Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough. The links are both the food histories as well as the discovery of the outbreak strain of the E...

Looking at Leftovers - Lack of Contaminated Product is Not an Alibi

Posted on June 26, 2009
We are in the midst of another sprouts recall. Sprouts from Kowalke Organics from Culver City, California are being pulled from shelves over potential contamination with Salmonella. According to the LA Times: "Mike Matthews, Kowalke's owner, told the Associated Press that only one package -- with the sell-by date of June 21 -- tested positive for salmonella, so far...

Nestle Plant Refused Full Cooperation with FDA

Posted on June 26, 2009
Two reports of past inspections were made public today. The most notable inspection occurred in September 2006 at the Nestle plant in Danville, Virginia where it manufactures cookie dough products, as well as stuffed pastas and pasta sauces. A number of deficiencies were noted as part of the inspection...

Food Safety Still Getting A "D" In Obama Era, Despite Early Moves To Enter 21st Century

Posted on June 25, 2009
Consumer Confidence Has Crumbled Regarding Food Safety, Thanks to Massive Product Recalls...And That "D" Grade Is For Dangerous. By Eddie Gehman Kohan, Editor in Chef of Obama Foodorama A new study from IBM finds that sixty percent of eaters surveyed are worried that the food they consume may well be poisoned...

Another Opportunity to Talk Sprouts

Posted on June 25, 2009
In the midst of yet another sprouts recall (see Bill's recent blog-post), I received an email from a concerned sprout grower. I will freely admit that I feel for the people, and the businesses, involved in the manfacture or sale of food products (intrinsically risky or not) who are not the immediate source of a recalled or contaminated product...

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