“The physical, financial and emotional burdens of an E. coli infection can be devastating for victims and their families, and I’ve seen this happen too often in my practice as an E. coli lawyer,” said food poisoning attorney Fred Pritzker. “Our law firm is investigating this outbreak and what led to the contamination of the cheese. We are also concerned about cross contamination.”

CDC is collaborating with the FDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and public health officials in the five states to investigate this multistate E. coli O157:H7 outbreak.  Through pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) subtyping, the pathogen has been identified as a rare strain of E. coli O157:H7 that has never been seen before in the PulseNet database. PulseNet is the national subtyping network that performs molecular surveillance of foodborne infections.

Laboratory testing had confirmed the presence of E. coli 0157:H7, matching the outbreak strain, in two opened packages of Bravo Farms Dutch Style Gouda Cheese purchased at Costco and taken from two different case patient’s homes. Additionally, preliminary laboratory testing conducted on an unopened package of Bravo Farms Dutch Style Gouda Cheese obtained from a Costco retail location has identified E. coli O157:H7. Further laboratory testing is being conducted to confirm these results.

The FDA has collected Bravo Farms product samples for testing to identify potential sources of contamination. The additional investigative activities include:

• Conducting surveillance to identify additional illnesses that could be related to the outbreak.
• Gathering and testing food products that may be contaminated with bacteria.
• Following epidemiologic leads gathered from interviews with patients, food purchase information, or from patterns of processing, production and/or distribution of suspected products.
• Investigating the distribution chain to ascertain the point of contamination.

For more information call an experienced E. coli lawyer with PritzkerOlsen, P.A. at 1-888-377-8900 (toll-free) or submit our free consultation form.

The water that supplies residents of this tiny town 55 miles southwest of Fargo comes from local wells that use groundwater. These wells have tested positive for E. coli contamination twice since 1986, news reports indicate. North Dakota state health officials plan on testing every well in the town on Monday.

E. coli Well Water Lawsuit

E. coli safety attorney Elliot Olsen recently settled a case on behalf of an Iowa toddler who became sick with E. coli poisoning after consuming the water that supplied the rural home her family rented. In May of 2007 she came down withsymptoms of an E. coli infection, including severe diarrhea and abdominal pain. She was hospitalized and her symptoms worsened as the pathogen infected her blood. She developed a condition called hemolytic uremic syndrome (E. coli HUS) that destroys red blood cells and keeps kidneys from serving their function as filters that remove waste from the bloodstream.

She was on dialysis and in the hospital for a month and still has long-term kidney damage even now, three years after her initial illness. She could need a kidney transplant later in life.

How Does E. coli Contaminate Well Water?

Because harmful strains of E. coli can live in animal and human digestive systems, they can therefore be found in animal and human waste. After any kind of precipitation—a rainfall, a snowmelt—E. coli from animal or human fecal matter can wash into groundwater, rivers, lakes and streams. This can consequently contaminate water sources and, if the water isn’t sufficiently treated, can make people seriously sick.

According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

• Over 15 million U.S. households rely on private, household wells for drinking water.
• If polluted ground water is consumed, it could cause illness. Ground water pollution can be caused by seepage through landfills, failed septic tanks, underground fuel tanks, fertilizers and pesticides, and runoff from urban areas.
• It is important that private ground water wells are checked regularly to ensure that the water is safe for drinking.
• Typically, private water systems that serve no more than 25 people at least 60 days of the year and have no more than 15 service connections are not regulated by the EPA.

Source: http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/36320/

In this particular case, an Iowa toddler became sick from E. coli-contaminated well water that served as the water supply to the rural home her family rented. In May of 2007 she became sick with symptoms of an E. coli infection, including severe diarrhea and abdominal pain. She was hospitalized and her symptoms worsened as the pathogen infected her blood. Her condition, known as hemolytic uremic syndrome ( HUS), destroyed her red blood cells and kept the kidneys from serving their purpose as filters that clean and remove waste from the bloodstream.

She was put on kidney dialysis and remained in the hospital for about a month. Even three years later, she has permanent kidney damage and will continue to require medication and treatment, and could need a kidney transplant later in life.

Employees of the Iowa county where the home is located tested tap water from the house in June of 2007 and the results were positive for E. coli. The home is surrounded by pasture land, and cattle are known to graze on land uphill from the well. Expert witnesses, including a PhD environmental engineer from a major university and a PhD microbiologist from another major university specializing in E-coli, were hired to examine the situation and confirmed that cattle manure in rainwater most likely drained into the well and contaminated the water with the pathogen.

Although settlement earned for this young girl will help offset past and future medical expenses, they cannot undo the suffering this family has experienced. Nor will the settlement change the fact that property owners have a duty to their tenants to provide safe, clean drinking water—a duty that the property owner in this case has failed to fulfill.

State and federal health officials are investigating the scope of E. coli O157:H7 contamination from ground beef products distributed by Adams Farm Slaughterhouse of Athol, Mass.

 According to a recall announcement issued Monday night by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, 2,574 pounds of ground beef products that were was distributed to private owners on three Massachusetts farms is being recalled.

This is a Class I High Health Risk recall and the Massachusetts farms that received the product were identified as Mazzarese, Side Hill Farm and Sweet Water Farm. The suspected ground beef E. coli packages are marked with the packaging date of 11/11/2009 and bear the USDA establishment number EST 5497 on the USDA seal of inspection.

According to this recall, it was initiated after the Massachusetts Department of Public Health confirmed a positive ground beef sample for E. coli O157:H7, which it collected during an epidemiological investigation. Working in conjunction with Massachusetts E. coli experts, FSIS determined that there is an association between the ground beef products and an illness in the state of Massachusetts. The investigation is continuing and anyone with signs or symptoms of E. coli O157:H7 infection should consult a physician.

This organism causes extremely painful and often bloody diarrhea. In more than 5 percent of cases, patients develop life-threatening  hemolytic remic syndrome (HUS) or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and can suffer kidney failure, stroke, damage to their kidneys, heart, brain and central nervous system. Some 60 people die each year from E. coli infections and many more are hospitalized and suffer life-long health conditions.

This is the second ground beef E. coli recall and outbreak involving a Massachusetts ground beef supplier in the past four months.

E. coli in steak: What you need to know

Is it always safe to eat a steak served rare? Seems like a simple question.

But a Dec. 24 National Steak and Poultry recall of almost 250,000 pounds of blade-tenderized beef forced consumers and health officials to reevaluate the question—especially after government agencies associated the recalled beef with 21 cases of E. coli in 16 states.

Typically, ground beef comes to mind when considering meat that could be tainted with E. coli. But this outbreak involved blade-tenderized, or what health officials call “non-intact” beef, which included steaks, beef medallions and sirloin tips. “Blade-tenderized” or “non-intact” refers to meat that has been punctured with needles or blades to break down the tissue and make a tougher cut of muscle more tender. Any pathogen (like E. coli) on the surface of the beef is normally killed in the cooking process if the beef is intact. But the mechanical tenderization process drives pathogens inside the beef. If it isn’t cooked until the internal temperature reaches at least 140 degrees, the beef could still contain the pathogen.

Government officials and industry groups offer mixed advice on what consumers should do. The National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods determined in 2002 that non-intact beef can indeed harbor infective amounts of E. coli, but that following the 140-degree rule will put you in the clear. A 2002 risk assessment by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) concluded there is almost no difference in risk of illness from intact versus non-intact steaks.

And yet there have been several E. coli outbreaks since then involving mechanically tenderized meat. This has put the spotlight on the issue of labeling. If non-intact steak must be cooked a certain way to guarantee its safety, then shouldn’t consumers have the right to know whether their steak is intact so they can cook it accordingly? That was the recommendation issued in a 2005 study by the Minnesota Department of Health following a 2003 outbreak of E. coli associated with blade-tenderized frozen steaks sold by door-to-door salesmen. In light of the National Steak and Poultry outbreak, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro called for labeling of non-intact steaks, stating “USDA has been aware of the E. coli risks associated with mechanically tenderized steaks as early as 1999, but has refused to act…consumers should be made fully aware of the products they are receiving so they can assure that they are cooked at the appropriate temperature.”

Furthermore, does this mean every time we eat at a restaurant, we should order our steak cooked to an internal temperature of 140 degrees? The National Restaurant Association in 2000 decided that restaurant patrons asking for rare- or medium-cooked steak should be informed that non-intact steaks should be cooked to at least 145 degrees to ensure safety. But when is the last time your server told you that?

For most Americans, it came as a shock that something as healthy as spinach could cause fatal disease and illness on such a wide scale. Studies have been done since the outbreak on the clustering of pathogenic bacteria inside sealed plastic bags of leafy green produce.

The most recent study, completed in October 2009 by scientists from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, evaluated the effect of  temperature during storage of bagged spinach inoculated with E. coli O157:H7. The results were instructive on how the grocery industry and consumers should pay attention to refrigeration to reduce the threat of microbiological hazards in bagged greens.

The study by Yaguang Luo, Qiang He, James McEvoy and William Conway found that E. coli O157:H7 can grow significantly on commercially packaged spinach held at 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit (8 C)  or above before significant product quality deterioration occurs.

Bagged E. coli spinach held at 53.6 degrees (12 C) supported “significant” growth of the bacteria within only three days of storage and continued to grow with each additional day of storage until the spinach became noticeably deteriorated by Day 9.

When  held at 46.4 degrees (8 C), E coli initially grew slowly but bacteria growth was significant after 6 days of storage, the study found.

On the contrary, bagged spinach held at 33.8 degrees and 41 degrees experienced significant declines in E. coli O157:H7 populations within 3 days of storage.

Federal health investigators said they became aware of the problem at National Steak and Poultry while investigating a multi-state cluster of E. coli O157:H7 infections. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which has been working with state health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said late Thursday in the recall press release that there is an association between blade-tenderized non-intact steaks and E. coli illnesses in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Washington.

The restaurant steak E. coli outbreak and recall does not identify which national restaurant chains received the steaks, nor did it say how many people have been infected by the outbreak strains of E. coli O157:H7, a potentially deadly pathogen that is especially dangerous for young children, adults older than 60 and others with weakened immune systems. In more than 5 percent of cases, extremely painful and bloody diarrhea is followed by a life-threatening condition known as hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP).

Health officials are urging anyone with signs of the disease after eating steak at a restaurant to see a physician immediately. For legal questions, call national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free). The firm has been investigating the outbreak for more than a week and has been contacted by at least one potential victim.

According to the National Steak and Poultry recall, the products in question were packaged on October 12, 13, 14, and 21 and shipped to restaurants nationwide. The cases bear the USDA plant I.D. number of 6010T inside the USDA mark of inspection.

Here is the complete list of recalled products:

• 4-ounce “NATIONAL STEAK AND POULTRY BONELESS BEEF SIRLOIN STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “SC68408.”
• 6-ounce “NATIONAL STEAK AND POULTRY BONELESS BEEF SIRLOIN STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “SP680608.”
• 8-ounce “NATIONAL STEAK AND POULTRY BONELESS BEEF SIRLOIN STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “SC68808”
• 9-ounce “NATIONAL STEAK AND POULTRY BONELESS BEEF SIRLOIN STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “SC68908.”
• “NATIONAL STEAK AND POULTRY BONELESS BEEF TIPS,” with an identifying case code of “69108.”
• “NATIONAL STEAK AND POULTRY BONELESS BEEF SIRLOIN STEAK” with an identifying case code of “XXSP68008.”
• “NATIONAL STEAK AND POULTRY SAVORY SIRLOIN TIPS” with an identifying case code of “XX69008.”
• 5-ounce “NATIONAL STEAK AND POULTRY BACON WRAPPED BEEF FILLET,” with an identifying case code of “23508.”
• “NATIONAL STEAK AND POULTRY USDA SELECT BEEF SHOULDER MARINATED TENDER MEDALLIONS” with an identifying case code of  “23289.”
• “NATIONAL STEAK AND POULTRY 75% BONELESS BEEF TRIMMINGS,” with an identifying case code of “33575.”
• “NATIONAL STEAK AND POULTRY BEEF TRIMMINGS,” with an identifying case code of “36545.”
• “NATIONAL STEAK AND POULTRY BEEF SIRLOIN PHILLY STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “88008.”
• 4-ounce “EGN BONELESS BEEF SIRLOIN STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “680425.”
• 7-ounce “EGN BONELESS BEEF SIRLOIN TRI TIP STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “69725.”
• 9-ounce “EGN BONELESS BEEF SIRLOIN TRI TIP STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “680925.”
• 7-ounce “KRM BONELESS BEEF SIRLOIN STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “680715.”
• 9-ounce “KRM BONELESS BEEF SIRLOIN STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “680915.”
• 12-ounce “KRM BONELESS BEEF SIRLOIN STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “680215.”
• 8-ounce “CARINO’S BONELESS BEEF OUTSIDE SKIRT STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “130874.”
• “CARINO’S BONELESS BEEF OUTSIDE SKIRT STEAK PIECES,” with an identifying case code of “13074.”
• “MOE’S BEEF STEAK,” with an identifying case code of “78027.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a standing  advisory out to consumers to check their refrigerators and freezers for ground beef products produced by Fairbank Farms and  purchased on or after September 15 from a variety of retailers in the Northeast.

According to the suit filed late last week in Plymouth Superior Court, Rhode Island Lincoln Middle School student Lynne Santos was one of more than 30 students and chaperones who were sickened after eating a meal of hamburgers during their school trip to Bournedale. The Santos child fell severely ill and was hospitalized for four days, according to the suit.

It is the second Lincoln Middle School E. coli lawsuit filed against the ground beef maker, South Shore Meats of Brockton, Massachusetts. As part of the public health investigation into the outbreak, investigators tested leftover hamburger meat from Camp Bournedale and found it contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. South Shore Meats and the USDA’s Food Safety an Inspection Service announced a recall of more than 1,000 pounds of the ground beef, which was mostly sold to commercial kitchens in New England.

The owner of Camp Bournedale has said since the outbreak that camp cooks will never again prepare hamburgers for visitors from fresh ground beef, which is a common vehicle of transmission for E. coli O157:H7. Nationwide, there have been 18 ground beef E. coli outbreaks since 2007, all resulting in lawsuits. The most recent came just after the Camp Bournedale illnesses. The multi-state Fairbank Farms E. coli outbreak has sickened at least 25 people in 10 states, killing two and causing at least three cases of E. coli HUS, or hemolytic uremic syndrome, a life-threatening complication of E. coli infection.

Pritzker Olsen Attorneys is investigating whether others may have contracted E. coli O157: H7 at the petting zoo, which is 12 miles south of Shakopee and part of an attraction that also includes an apple orchard. The orchard at Sponsel’s Minnesota Harvest is not associated with this potential E. coli outbreak.

Our firm is representing the toddler. He appears to have contracted the disease from a llama at the petting zoo.  The child spent 11 days this month in a Twin Cities hospital fighting hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, a life-threatening complication of an E. coli infection. According to a recent study, 3 percent of E. coli HUS cases end in death when involving a child under 5 years old.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) found a strain of E. coli O157:H7 in the feces of a llama at the petting zoo that genetically matched the strain of E. coli O157:H7 that sickened the 3-year-old.

E. coli O157:H7 is one of the most common and most dangerous kinds of intestinal disease agents associated with animal contact. Pritzker Olsen practices extensively in cases dealing with the pathogenic bacteria and currently represents victims of an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak at the 2009 National Western Stock Show in Denver.

“Despite state guidelines recommending sanitation measures to ensure the safety of visitors to petting zoos, it appears the operator of this facility did not follow all of these guidelines,” stated Attorney Fred Pritzker. “The Minnesota Department of Health regularly sends these guidelines to petting zoos.  This outbreak might have been prevented if this business had put safety first.”

For a free consultation with an attorney regarding your E. coli poisoning case, please call 612-338-0202, call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit our online form.