Articles Posted in Foodborne Illness

A Merced company has recalled year-old hamburger meat distributed in California and elsewhere after at least three Napa County children became ill with a virulent strain of E. coli, health officials said Friday, according to an article Saturday in the Los Angeles Times. The meat was reportedly produced by Richwood Meat Co. on April 28, 2006, dated either “4-28-06” or “118-6,” for the 118th day of the year, company officials said. Although the product was manufactured a year ago, the patties still may be present in freezers at home or in stores, officials said.

The products were distributed to institutional food services, food distributors, discount grocers and retail outlets such as WinCo and Vons, officials said. The recalled meat also was shipped to Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The tainted hamburger patties were served at a concession stand at a Little League field in St. Helena, Calif., about 65 miles north of San Francisco. Health officials found the E. coli strain in remaining frozen hamburger stored by the stand and by the store that sold it the meat, Salami Lady’s Cash & Carry.

Health officials urged the public to throw away any of the recalled meat or return it to the store where it was purchased. It is dangerous to consume even if cooked until black, health officials say. The ill children suffered from bloody diarrhea for three to five days, but none developed the more serious complications of E. coli infection that result in kidney failure, the Times reported. All three children confirmed to have contracted E. coli have recovered, as well as two additional children who showed similar symptoms. No new illnesses have been reported since April 4. The recalled products carry the brand names Fireriver, Ritz Food Service, Chef’s Pride, Blackwood Farms, California Pacific Associates, C&C Distributing, Golbon and Richwood.
Continue reading →

A 72-year-old woman who said she ate at a Souplantation in Lake Forest during the recent E. coli outbreak has sued the company for allegedly serving contaminated food that caused her kidneys to fail, according to an April 17 article in the Los Angeles Times story. Alice Secrist was reportedly hospitalized April 3 at Irvine Regional Hospital and Medical Center with abdominal cramps, bloody diarrhea, dehydration and fatigue, according to the lawsuit filed Monday in Orange County Superior Court.

Secrist, who needed dialysis, did not test positive for the bacteria because she was taking antibiotics before she was hospitalized, her attorney told the newspaper. It is possible to be infected with E. Coli and yet not test positive, stated Orange County health officials. The woman’s doctors also told her that she was suffering from a “classic case of E. Coli,” her lawyer said. The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensation for medical expenses, loss of income, legal fees and other damages.

Secrist, a Rancho Santa Margarita resident, ate at the restaurant’s salad bar on March 23 with a friend, according to the article. A few days later, she went to a clinic with “intense abdominal cramping and was prescribed antibiotics.” Her attorney said she was still sick and returned to a doctor who sent her to a hospital. He said Secrist was only recently released from the hospital and that “her digestive system will be completely in turmoil for at least a few months.”
Continue reading →

The Souplantation Restaurant in Foothill Ranch has been closed after a 12th case of E. coli was confirmed among customers and one employee tested positive for the bacteria, county health officials announced Saturday, according to a news report in The Orange County Register on Sunday.

Orange County Health Care Agency officials said they confirmed late Friday night that there was a 12th E. coli case tied to the restaurant located at 26572 Towne Center Drive. The agency said it involved a juvenile who ate at the restaurant March 25. Previous customers who were afflicted reported eating there March 23 or 24. Officials gave no further details about the person or his or her condition.

Souplantation voluntarily closed the restaurant late Friday afternoon as a precautionary measure because large crowds were expected over the Easter holiday weekend, a spokeswoman for the restaurant told the Register. She added that other employees were still being tested for the E. Coli bacteria as well.

Company officials also said that all the employees are being tested because many of them eat at the restaurant and could help authorities determine the cause of the outbreak.

Meanwhile county health officials are saying that they have not identified the source of the infections and cannot draw any conclusions about the possible source of the bacteria, the article said. Interviews with people who work at Souplantation showed that they also eat at the restaurant and could have become ill in the same manner as their customers who ate there, officials explained.
Continue reading →

An E-Coli outbreak in Orange County traced back to local restaurant. The Souplantation, a San Diego-based salad-bar chain, is cooperating with Orange County health officials who are trying to pinpoint the food that caused six children and one adult to get sick after eating at their Lake Forest restaurant, according to an article published in The Orange County Register Tuesday.

Orange County health officials confirmed to the newspaper that those reportedly sickened by the food tested positive for E. coli O157:H7, the same deadly strain that affected hundreds of consumers in several other recent produce outbreaks that, starting last year, attracted national media attention.

The seven customers ate at the Towne Center Drive restaurant from March 23 to March 25. Though the investigation is ongoing, the restaurant – in a retail center in the community of Foothill Ranch – remains open, the Souplantation said. So far, no other cases have been reported, the article said.

The seven people – six children and one person over 70 years old – are recovering, local health authorities said. Three of the victims had to be hospitalized, according to the article.
Last year, 71 customers of Irvine-based Taco Bell were sickened after they ate contaminated shredded lettuce. That outbreak was limited to several East Coast restaurants. Taco Bell is facing several lawsuits filed nationwide pertaining to those episodes.
Continue reading →

Legal woes continued to mount yesterday for pet food manufacturer Menu Foods as the Canada-based company at the center of one of the largest consumer-product recalls ever in North America found itself facing at least six class-action lawsuits from angry dog and cat owners, according to a news report in The Edmonton Sun, a Canadian newspaper.

Two Los Angeles residents who allege their cats got sick from eating tainted food made by the company, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking class-action status and unspecified damages. This filing brings the number of class action lawsuits to at least six across Canada and the U.S. Class-action status needs to be granted by a judge. Having a lawsuit certified as a “class-action” is not easy or automatic.

So far, Menu Foods has recalled 95 brands of the company’s dog and cat food – 60 million cans and pouches in all. The food is said to have contained traces of aminopterin, a rat poison banned in the United States. Tests continued to confirm the source of the contamination, but wheat gluten imported from China is considered a prime suspect.
Continue reading →

Apparently, food poisoning spares no one. Not even if you’re a ball player.

This is a story is reminiscent of the Los Angeles Lakers, Sacramento Kings basketball rivalry. Lakers come to town, get food poisoning and then play their arch rivals to a close game. This time it’s Stanford and Arizona State.

Stanford went into its game Saturday against Arizona State with a handicap after six players came down with food poisoning, according to an article in the Tucson Citizen. As expected, the Cardinals lost to Arizona, playing without two of their starters – Mitch Johnson and Fred Washington — who were among the six afflicted players.

Well, it was close and the game went into overtime, but still, Arizona won 85-80 in overtime.

Many of the sick players were on IVs for most of Friday, according to the Tucson Citizen article. Apparently, they and others “ate bad chicken.” Many played despite their illness.

“I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. What can you do?” said Stanford coach Trent Johnson. “The game is going to be played no matter what…We’re like boxers. We get knocked down, but we get back up.”
Continue reading →

Federal health officials on Thursday confirmed that the salmonella in samples taken from the Georgia processing plant is consistent with the bacteria found in the contaminated Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter, according to a news article in Healthday’s Website.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, inspections of ConAgra’s plant in Sylvester revealed the same strain of salmonella found in the peanut butter jars, which sickened 370 people across 42 states.

The article quotes Dr. David Acheson, FDA’s Director of Food Safety:

“All we know is that we’ve got salmonella bacteria that we found in the environment in the facility that matched the same strain that we found in patients that the states found in jars of peanut butter.”

He said the peanut butter became contaminated some time during the production process – between roasting and putting the product in the jar.

Experts say how the bacteria entered the plant will remain a mystery.

“How it got into the environment we’ll never know,” he said. “It may have come in on somebody’s feet; it’s possible there was somebody in the plant who was sick and didn’t know it. But that’s pure speculation.”
Continue reading →

The Food and Drug Administration , the federal agency that has been warning the public about recent E.Coli and salmonella outbreaks connected with tainted spinach and peanut butter, is conducting only half the food safety inspections now than it did three years ago.

According to an Associated Press news report posted on the MSNBC Website, these cuts come in the wake of several well-publicized food recalls in recent months. The article says a database analysis of federal records by the Associated Press shows that between 2003 and 2006, FDA’s food safety inspections dropped 47 percent.

“We have a food safety crisis on the horizon,” said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia.

The analysis also shows that: a. There are 12 percent fewer FDA employees in field offices who focus on food issues and b. Safety tests for U.S. produced food have dropped 75 percent, from 9,748 in 2003 to 2,455 last year.

After Sept. 11, FDA increased the number of food inspectors fearing a terrorist threat. But the number started falling quickly and steadily after the year 2003, wiping away whatever positive results the agency had achieved from the increase in inspections.

And now it’s getting worse, which comes as no surprise to me. Now there are more facilities to inspect and more imported food. It’s clear from the spinach and lettuce E.Coli outbreaks and latest recall involving salmonella-tainted peanut butter produced by ConAgra Inc. that has sickened at least 329 people across 41 states.
Continue reading →

Federal investigators are trying to follow the trail of the much-publicized peanut butter salmonella infestation that sickened more than 329 people across 41 states.

They believe this trail may lead to products that have not yet been recalled, including Reese’s Peanut Butter snacks, according to an article posted on www.consumeraffairs.com.

Hershey, which makes Reese’s products, insists it “does not source any peanut butter from ConAgra,” which manufactured the tainted Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter. ConAgra has also declined to say whether the Reese’s products contain any of its peanut butter.

Meanwhile the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not ruled it out and at least one consumer has reported to ConsumerAffairs.Com that she was sickened and missed work after eating a King Size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.

“I’m not trying to start a mass hysteria situation, but I did eat a King Size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup product almost three weeks ago,” the Florida woman wrote. “I got sick with diarrhea later on that same evening and it was an ongoing thing for almost a week…I couldn’t sit down for more than 10 minutes without having to go to the toilet.”

Hershey officials say that the ConAgra recall does not apply to any of the Reese’s products and that these are safe to consume.
Continue reading →