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According to the Centers for Disease Control, ShopRite stores in New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York sold tainted ground beef that has sent a half dozen people to a hospital.
All victims reported eating 80 percent lean ground beef, the source of which investigators are working to identify.
Salmonella germs can be spread through contaminated food, water, food preparation surfaces, and unwashed hands. Ground beef is a known source of Salmonella illnesses. These germs are killed when ground beef is cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F, so beef cooked less than this can pose a health risk.
Food Poisoning
Foodborne bacterial infections affect about 48 million Americans every year. These infections send tens of thousands of people to local hospitals. The most common kinds of food poisoning bacteria are:
- Salmonella: Salmonellosis symptoms include bloody diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever, and stomach cramps. Vulnerable victims, such as older people, children, and people with compromised immune systems, often get violently or fatally sick in these situations. Illness could begin a few hours or a few days after consuming tainted food.
- Norovirus: The “stomach flu” is the leading cause of vomiting and diarrhea from acute gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines) among people of all ages in the United States. Unlike Salmonella, norovirus seriously affects people of all ages. The bacteria spreads very easily and quickly.
- Campylobacter: People can get Campylobacter infections by eating raw or undercooked poultry, or by eating something that touched it. They can also get it from eating other foods, including seafood, meat, and produce, by contact with animals, and by drinking untreated water.
Other common forms of food poisoning include Toxoplasma gondii, a parasitic infection that mostly threatens pregnant women, and E. coli, an umbrella term for various bacteria that could cause respiratory illness, urinary tract infections, and pneumonia.
Infection risk usually increases with every stage of food processing. The more times a food product goes through a machine or is touched by a worker, the greater likelihood of contamination.
Government Response to Food Poisoning Cases
Without watchdog agencies, like the Centers for Disease Control, the number of food poisoning cases would likely be much higher. Once the CDC or the Food and Drug Administration receives indisputable proof of an outbreak, the agency takes steps to contain it.
By the time the government acts, however, bacterial infections have already harmed people, and in many cases, made them catastrophically ill.
Your Legal Options
By design, product recalls don’t compensate victims. But a product liability attorney has multiple options in this area. All these options usually hinge on negligence, which is basically a lack of care.
Manufacturers are negligent if they don’t maintain sanitary production facilities. This failure was front and center in Donoghue v. Stevenson, one of the world’s first negligence cases. A court held a beer bottler responsible for a woman’s damages when she drank a beer with a dead snail inside the bottle.
This responsibility usually applies if the manufacturer knew, or should have known, about the product contamination.
Manufacturers are also negligent if they don’t adequately warn customers about known product risks.
Legally, manufacturers usually have a duty to shut down production at the first sign of trouble, or at least examine the matter thoroughly.
Retailers also have a duty to pull dangerous products off the shelf. They cannot blame consumers for buying tainted products.
Food poisoning could seriously disrupt or even end your life. For a free consultation, contact Napoli Shkolnik.