I know you’re dying for more. I posed a question to Caudill Seed yesterday about why they haven’t recalled their product. Jim Prevor, the Perishable Pundit, had the same question apparently.
Pundit: FDA says Caudill made the decision to voluntarily withdraw from the market all the alfalfa seeds bearing six digit lot numbers
Andrew Martin of the New York Times wrote a nice article this morning on the safety of our food supply. We represent all three individuals profiled in his article: Heather Whybrew, Carl Ours, and Mary Tardiff. All suffered devastating illnesses in separate outbreaks and from different pathogens. All have unbelievable stories of suffering.
Heather’s story is unique, perhaps because she had lived through so much pain in her life even before her severe E. coli O157:H7 illness. In November 2004, after two years of headaches, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Treatment for her relatively rare condition—giant cell glioblastoma—included a full craniotomy to remove the tumor from the left frontal lobe of Heather’s brain. The procedure left her partially paralyzed. She remained hospitalized at Seattle Children’s Hospital and in intensive rehabilitation from November 16 until December 24, 2004.
During her rehabilitation, Heather had to relearn many basic motor functions, including how to walk. Relearn these skills she did, and despite her brain tumor, Heather eventually went on to college at Pacific Lutheran University.
Heather was infected by E. coli O157:H7 in the midst of finals her freshman year from contaminated lettuce served in a University Cafeteria. She would ultimately be hospitalized at St. Francis Hospital and Seattle Children’s Hospital for three weeks. During her hospitalization, Heather battled endless nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, a bad pneumonia illness, and severe blood clots in the superficial veins of her arms. The combined medical treatment would cost almost $114,000. She would have to make up her final exams during the next school year.Continue Reading Heather Whybrew’s E. coli O157:H7 Illness
Here is a copy of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the CDC addressing the recent sprout outbreak. We have been reporting on this for weeks now (maybe months), since cases were first report in Nebraska in February. Please take a look at this report; it provides a good summary of the anatomy of
Last June, Brian Grubbs, of Colorado, suffered a Salmonella Saintpaul infection after consuming contaminated jalapeno peppers. His illness was one of more than 1,200 in a nationwide outbreak. The Grubbs purchased the peppers at their local WalMart. Marler Clark subsequently filed suit against WalMart on Mr. Grubbs behalf. WalMart tried unsuccessfully to have the suit thrown out, and has
Our work at Marler Clark requires lots of travel . . . sometimes even overseas. Looks like it might be time to up my intake of spaghetti carbonnara and red wine so that I’m ready to roll when it comes time to take a closer look at the Italian company selling the sprout seeds that are
I guess you’ve got to be in this business to get frustrated when people think of foodborne disease as being akin to "an upset stomach" or what everybody calls "the flu." That, or you’ve got to be unlucky enough to have known or loved somebody who developed hemolytic uremic syndrome or some other horrible manifestation of foodborne disease.
There is plenty of information out there on (1) what sprout and seed companies should be doing to reduce or eliminate the risk that they sell contaminated food to customers, and (2) what sprout sellers should be doing now, in the context of the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak linked to sprouts/sprout seeds. With absolutely no effort
Sprouts have gotten a bad rap recently, and I suspect that the sprout market will have that much-maligned feeling for many months to come. In this day and age, with all the channels of communication available to health departments (federal and state) around the country, and all the detective work that we do here at
The Salmonella-sprouts outbreak that we formerly reported was linked to illnesses in Michigan has grown. Health officials from multiple states (Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia) report at least 31 confirmed illnesses, which means that the number of actual illnesses in the outbreak is probably over one hundred. The FDA is
Steve Meyerowitz is, apparently, the Sproutman. Although I disagree with his analysis of the numbers–i.e. Sprouts have caused a hell of a lot more foodborne illnesses than 2,000 in the last 40 years–it’s good to see an industry man who recognizes the risks associated with his product, and who cares enough about consumer health