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E-coli lawsuits filed

Sandhusker

Well-known member
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - An Inver Grove Heights couple filed a lawsuit Monday against Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. after their children became ill from consuming E. coli-tainted beef patties that were part of a nationwide recall.

In the lawsuit filed in Dakota County, Eric and Jennifer Gustafson say their 4-year-old daughter, Callie, was hospitalized for about a week in September with an E. coli infection and has been permanently injured from the illness. Their 18-month-old son, Carson, also became ill and is still recovering, the lawsuit said.

Both children ate ground beef Sept. 7 at a barbecue. The meat had been purchased at Sam's Club in Eagan and was contaminated with E. coli, the lawsuit said.

Wayzata, Minn.-based Cargill voluntarily recalled more than 840,000 pounds of patties sold by Sam's Club stores nationwide on Oct. 6 over concerns about E. coli infection.

A spokesman for Cargill said the company would not comment on the lawsuit.

In a separate Minnesota case, the widower of a Cass County woman who died in August 2006 has filed a lawsuit in Hennepin County against the companies that supplied beef that was the likely source of an E. coli outbreak.

State health officials have said that Carolyn Hawkinson, 73, was among 17 people in the Longville area who were sickened after eating at a church supper.

Stanton Hawkinson filed the lawsuit Friday over his wife's death, saying she died of complications from E. coli infection. He's seeking unspecified monetary damages from the companies that manufactured, distributed and sold the beef: Nebraska Beef, Ltd., of Omaha; Interstate Meat Services, Inc., also known as Falk Properties Inc.; and Tabaka's Super Valu.

Two couples also from the Longville area filed lawsuits Monday in Cass County over the same E. coli outbreak.

Gary Gordon, an attorney for Nebraska Beef, said many questions remain unanswered about the Longville E. coli case.

"For at least a couple of the claimants, there's a real question as to whether they even had E. coli," he said. "There's also a question as to where this beef came from."

The plaintiffs in both E. coli cases are being represented by Marler Clark, a Seattle-based firm that handles many food-borne illness cases.
 

Tex

Well-known member
I believe that with today's lax regulatory agencies cooking hamburger meat all the way through is important, I believe the the "defense" the meat industry uses of, "You should have cooked the shiiiiit out of it instead of making sure they don't have shiiiiit in the product should be laughed out of court. Lawyers who make these defenses should likewise be laughed out of court.

People should have the right to buy irradiated meat and it should be labeled as such, given the inability of some companies to produced a safe product. This should still be no excuse for meat companies to provide unsafe meat that is not irradiated.

We have food safety issues because the meat industry is competing with each other on food safety costs. They should be held accountable for that in civil court. The FDA and USDA are not making sure they are producing a safe product so the economics of civil action should compel these changes.

The FDA/USDA management/political appointee hacks should be held accountable by the executive branch, the legislative branch (oversight hearings, power of the purse, impeachment of management) and lastly, when all else fails, the judicial system.

It shouldn't have come to this at all and it wouldn't have without industry buying off the three systems. Those CEOs and politicians should likewise be held accountable.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Empirical Distribution Models for Escherichia coli 57:H7 in Ground Beef Produced by a Mid-size Commercial Grinder

R.A. Flores11Authors Flores and Stewart are with Microbial Food Safety Research Unit, Eastern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Wyndmoor, PA 19038. Direct inquiries to author Flores (E-mail: [email protected]). and T. E. S Tewart11Authors Flores and Stewart are with Microbial Food Safety Research Unit, Eastern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Wyndmoor, PA 19038. Direct inquiries to author Flores (E-mail: [email protected]).1Authors Flores and Stewart are with Microbial Food Safety Research Unit, Eastern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Wyndmoor, PA 19038. Direct inquiries to author Flores (E-mail: [email protected]).
Abstract


ABSTRACT: The purpose of this research was to develop empirical models that describe the amount and distribution of ground beef contaminated with Escherichia coli O157:H7 when a contaminated beef trim is introduced into a batch of uncontaminated beef before processing in a mid-size commercial grinder (34 g/s). A beef trim was inoculated with a rifampacin-resistant strain of E. coli O157:H7 and added to a batch of noncontaminated trims at the grinding step. To study the distribution of the E. coli O157:H7rif in the ground beef, 6 treatments with different inoculum levels (1 to 6 log10 colony-forming units [CFU]) were tested. Removal or pick up of the residual contamination with E. coli O157:H7rif left in the grinder was evaluated. E. coli O157:H7rif was detected in 9% to 86% of the total ground beef for the 1 to 6 log10 CFU inoculum levels, respectively. E. coli O157:H7rif contamination was detected in the collar that fixes the grinder's die and blade to the hub. An exponential algorithm described the relationship between the quantities of ground beef containing E. coli O157:H7rif and the inoculum level (R2 = 0.82). Distribution models based on a Chi-squared algorithm were developed for each inoculum level describing the contamination level as a function of the batch fraction processed (R2 = 0.81 to 0.99). The results of this study corroborate that when beef processors test for pathogenic contamination in a mid-scale grinder, they should test the beef residues in the collar that fixes the grinder's die and blade to the hub.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Cargill, getting reacquainted with the Enemy
Posted on November 4, 2007 by E. coli Lawyer

Source of Article: http://www.marlerblog.com/2007/11/articles/case-news/cargill-getting-reacquainted-with-the-enemy/

As the number of Cargill-related E. coli recalls has grown, we have pulled a few of our past E. coli battles with Cargill and its many subsidiaries. We have spent a bit of time over the years with Cargill and its lawyers.


1993 and 2000 Sizzler outbreak linked to Cargill/Excel: http://www.marlerclark.com/news/sizzler20.htm
2001 Cargill/Excell Linked to Frozen Beef E. coli: http://www.marlerclark.com/news/white2.htm
2002 Cargill/Emmpak “fresh” ground meat linked to E. coli: http://www.marlerclark.com/news/emmpak5.htm

A bit more history about Cargill - In 1995 Cargill announced the “End of E. coli” in the pages of the New York Times. Now, 12 years later it has recalled nearly 2,000,000 pounds of hamburger (that is nearly enough to give every New Yorker a quarter pounder) in October and November recalls. Jane Genova, fellow blog addict, posted twice on what "Big Beef" needs to do to fix the problem and the PR.


Cargill Meat Solutions is the umbrella organization of Cargill’s beef, pork and turkey businesses. A key part of Cargill Meat Solutions was Excel Corporation, which began business nearly 70 years ago and grew from a Midwestern beef company to also include pork, processed meats, case ready meats and food distribution centers. Follow the Timeline:


Marler Blog

1936 - Beef processor Excel Packing Company is formed in Chicago

1941 - Excel Packing moves to Wichita

1970 - Excel changes name to Kansas Beef Industries

1974 - Kansas Beef Industries and Missouri Beef Packers, which was formed in 1964, merge to form MBPXL Corporation

1979 - Cargill, Incorporated, acquires MBPXL Corporation

1982 - Cargill renames MBPXL as Excel Corporation

Evolution of Cargill Meat Solutions - Excel was once known as America’s Beef Company. In the 1980s, the company moved beyond just beef and the U.S. border.

1982 - Food Distribution Centers: Excel opened its first food distribution center in Wichita, Kan., in 1982. Today, known as Cargill Food Distribution, the business distributes fresh beef and pork, and other products to grocers and foodservice outlets from 12 U.S. facilities.

1986
Further-processed, Value-added Meats: Excel acquired Del Pero Mondon (DPM), which was based in Marysville, Calif. The further processing business took the name of Emmpak Foods when Excel acquired Milwaukee-based Emmpak in 2001.

1987 - Pork Processing: Excel entered the pork processing business by purchasing two facilities that were being closed – one by Hormel in Ottumwa, Iowa, and the other by Oscar Mayer in Beardstown, Ill.

1989 - Canadian Beef: After two years of construction, Cargill Foods Ltd. opened a beef harvesting facility near High River, Alberta.

1991 - Australian Beef: Cargill Foods Australia acquired a meat processing business in Wagga Wagga, and two years later, converted it to a beef-only facility. Another facility, in Tamworth, was acquired in 1998.

1992 - Case-Ready Meats: Building on past efforts with case-ready meats, Excel/Cargill acquired a plant in Toronto and turned it into what is the longest-running of its five case-ready-only plants.

2000 - Cargill Meat Solutions: Cargill created Cargill Meat Solutions as one of 13 business platforms. In addition to Excel, Cargill Meat Solutions included Caprock Cattle Feeders, a leading finisher of beef cattle, and Cargill Pork, a leading producer of hogs. Cargill entered the hog production business in 1971 and acquired Caprock in 1974.

2001 - Turkey: Cargill Turkey Products was added to Cargill Meat Solutions. Cargill entered the turkey processing business in 1967. It grew through the 1998 acquisition of Plantation Foods in Waco, Tex., and the 2001 acquisition of Rocco Foods in Harrisonburg, Va. The general offices of Cargill Turkey Products moved to Wichita in 2003.

2003 - Taylor Beef: Cargill Meat Solutions created a business around Taylor Beef, which was acquired in 2002. Taylor focused on processing culled dairy cattle and producing ground beef.

2004 - Cargill Value Added Meats: Emmpak Foods, Inc., which was acquired in 2001 and based in Milwaukee, was combined with Cargill Turkey Products to form Cargill Value Added Meats. The general offices of the Cargill Value Added Meats business unit are located in Wichita. Finexcor: Cargill announces an agreement to acquire 50 percent of the shares of Finexcor, a leading Argentine beef processor and exporter. The purchase marks Cargill's first investment in the Argentine beef industry.

2005 - Better Beef: Cargill Limited and Better Beef Limited announce that the two companies have reached an agreement for Cargill to purchase beef processing and related assets operated by Better Beef Limited, headquartered in Guelph, Ontario.

Is their more?
 

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