Salmonella Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark : Salmonella Blog

The state Department of Health Services warns anyone who purchased Chef's Review nonfat dry milk sold in 5-pound bags at Smart & Final stores should not use the milk because it may be contaminated with salmonella.

Smart & Final is recalling nearly 500 bags of the product, which were distributed across California, reports the Daily Review. The dry milk is packaged in a brown bag with the brand name in red.

The recall began after the product tested positive for salmonella during a federal inspection of the manufacturer, Michigan Milk Producers of Novi, Michigan.
 

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Lea Thompson, Chief Consumer Correspondent for Dateline NBC, decided to take a look at food handling and cleanliness at family dining restaurants. She was expecting to turn up clean bills of health. Instead, she was stunned at what they found.

They pulled together restaurant inspection reports for a recent 15 month period -- this time for Denny's, IHOP, Applebees, Waffle House, Chili's, Bob Evans,T.G.I. Friday's, Ruby Tuesday, Outback and Red Lobster. Then, it took months to read and decipher those reports to pull out what inspectors call "critical violations." In English, those are health violations that can make you sick. Things that fall in that category are letting food sit out too long, not washing your hands after going to the bathroom and then serving food, rats and roaches in the kitchen.

The number of violations they had found per restaurant were:

• Waffle House 594
• Ruby Tuesday 514
• IHOP 513
• TGIF 490
• Applebee's 446
• Outback 418
• Chili's 402
• Red Lobster 350
• Bob Evans 315
• Denny's 296

Dateline also used hidden cameras on the report. The inspection reports identified the restaurants with the most critical violations. Thompson says that it was an interesting experience ordering food in a restaurant that they knew had a bad food safety record. They saw and photographed some ugly things, including grease and grime in ice bins, filthy bathrooms, and waitresses who didn't wash their hands after cleaning off dirty plates.

Thompson says that she would eat at any of these restaurants again. Most restaurant managers work hard to keep things clean, but she hopes that this story is a bit of a wake up call for the family chains. Some are starting to hire independent inspection companies to do unannounced going-overs. At least one chain has put its money where its mouth is by tying managers' salaries to improvements in health safety inspections.

She also says that if she see a place with dirty glasses or utensils, kitchen workers not using gloves, or food sitting under the heat lamps for too long, she really does turn around and walk out. She feels that is a good way to force restaurants to clean up. If you don't eat in a place because it isn't clean pretty soon it will either clean up its act or it will be out of business, she says. Cleanliness and profit really do go hand in hand.
 

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Employees at three out of four restaurants don't wash their hands well enough or often enough while handling your food, says Janet Rausa Fuller.

She continues to say that more than half of fast-food joints aren't properly cleaning work surfaces and utensils used to cook burgers, and roughly two out of three deli departments aren't storing ready-to-eat foods at the right temperatures.

Those are among the findings in a new report released this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In 2003, the agency inspected 926 food-service establishments nationwide in nine categories -- including elementary schools, hospitals, nursing homes and retail -- and found widespread risks of food-borne illnesses.

The most common red flags in every category: improper food storage, poor employee hygiene and contaminated equipment.

Fifty-four percent of fast-food workers, 40 percent of nursing home employees and 32 percent of school cafeteria workers were lax about washing their hands. Among full-service restaurants, 78 percent didn't store cold foods at the right temperature, 57 percent failed to properly sanitize work surfaces and utensils and nearly half weren't separating raw meat from ready-to-eat foods, the report found.
 

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At least three new cases of suspected salmonella poisoning have been reported to Lake County officials this week, prompting renewed calls from officials that people should discard jams and a peanut-butter spread served and sold at the Dinnerbell Restaurant and Bakery in St. Ignatius.

Susan Brueggeman, environmental health director for Lake County, said Wednesday the cases have not been positively confirmed as associated with the Dinnerbell contamination, which occurred in late July and in August. But samples of peanut-butter spread consumed by some of those who have recently reported illness will be tested for salmonella contamination.

Drinking water at the restaurant and bakery was contaminated with salmonella bacteria from a poultry pen. Water from the contaminated water system was used to make the peanut butter and jam, Brueggeman said, and the products were not sterilized at temperatures high enough to kill the salmonella.

 

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Missoula health officials advise anyone who bought jams or peanut butter, prepared by the Dinnerbell Bakery and Banquets near St. Ignatius, to discard the food.

Lake County health officials say the jams and peanut butter may be contaminated with bacteria that could cause illness.

The popular Amish restaurant, outside St. Ignatius, was ordered closed last month after a disease outbreak. It's been traced to salmonella contamination in the restaurant's water supply.

Lake County health officer Steven Palmieri says jams or peanut butter purchased in July or August, at either the Dinnerbell or the Mission General Store in St. Ignatius, should be thrown out.
 

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Cross-contamination of drinking water with salmonella bacteria from a poultry pen was the likely cause of a disease outbreak that has closed the Dinnerbell restaurant since early August, reports the Missoulian.

The Dinnerbell Bakery and Banquets is a popular Amish restaurant near St. Ignatius that features traditional American cuisine such as baked chicken and gravy, corn on the cob, fresh-baked bread and homemade pie. The food is served family-style, with patrons seated side-by-side at banquet tables in one large room in an Amish farm setting.

At least 19 people experienced gastrointestinal distress severe enough to seek medical attention and were diagnosed with food poisoning caused by salmonella.

A state DEQ water-quality specialist from Kalispell inspected the site after local health officials targeted water as the likely source of contamination. The inspection found an illegally installed cross-connection in the plumbing system that could have allowed backflow of water supplying a poultry pen on the farm with water plumbed and piped to the restaurant.

Dinnerbell owner Glen Hochstetler said Monday that an engineer hired to design a water treatment system for the restaurant was scheduled to visit Monday afternoon, and the Dinnerbell would reopen as soon as the system is approved by state officials and installed.
 

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The FDA yesterday recommended changes aimed at reducing by one-third the salmonella infections caused each year by tainted eggs, according to the Associated Press.

The agency estimates that 118,000 people each year are sickened by eating improperly cooked eggs contaminated with salmonella.

By bolstering safety at farms with more than 3,000 laying hens that do not already pasteurize their eggs, the agency hopes to trim illness rates by 33,500 per year.

The changes, if adopted, would cost an estimated 4,100 affected farms about $82 million per year. Depending on farm size, producers could pay from as little as 19 cents to as much as $1 in increased costs per laying hen. Because safer food would reduce hospitalizations, however, the measure could provide $490 million in savings, the agency estimates.

The proposed safety measures include the creation of biosecurity programs and provisions that eggs stored at the farm are refrigerated and pests controlled.

Farms and egg producers will now have to create biosecurity programs that limit access to poultry houses and require visitors to shower in both directions and dispose of potentially tainted outer clothing. A positive salmonella test result would prompt disinfection of the poultry house and prevent those eggs from reaching the market.
 

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The FDA has proposed an obligatory on-farm salmonella control check in order to reduce the risk of salmonella illnesses caused by infected eggs.

While the move has been welcomed by the Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT) as long overdue, some within the US egg production industry are worried that the threat of disease is being exaggerated.

The new plan therefore requires egg farms to conduct an environmental test of each flock, followed by a series of egg tests if SE is found. If there are continued positive results, the eggs could not be sold to consumers as raw shell eggs.

Since 1995, the number of illnesses from SE in the US declined 52 per cent , from an average of 3.88 illnesses per 100,000 people to an average of 1.85 illnesses per 100,000 people in 2002, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Salmonella Surveillance System.

Numerous procedures have been implemented, such as the rule requiring eggs to be refrigerated during distribution and storage at retail stores. That regulation went into effect in June of 2001.
 

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Last week the Lake County Leader ran a short brief on a salmonella report issued by the Lake County Health Department. The brief reported an outbreak of 15 cases of salmonella linked to an eating establishment in Lake County.

The name of the restaurant was not disclosed in the original release.

The Lake County Health Department confirmed the restaurant was The Dinnerbell Bakery and Banquets at St. Ignatius. The restaurant was given a cease and desist order Aug. 6, 2004. The order stated the establishment had been implicated in an outbreak of Salmonella Type B.
 

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PULLMAN, Wash. -- The two-headed calves and grossly enlarged animal skulls mounted on the walls of the Washington State University veterinary hospital are known as monsters, but they are not the type that keep scientists here awake at night.

The researchers are much more worried about plague, E. coli, anthrax or other deadly agents that terrorists could use to kill Americans or destroy the nation's food supply.

The WSU College of Veterinary Medicine is on the front lines of the war on terrorism, part of a nationwide early warning system to detect if bioterrorists have struck the United States.

While it may not be as dramatic as flying jetliners into buildings, or taking over a school, bioterrorism has the potential to kill far more people, WSU officials said.

"Our society is so removed from large outbreaks of disease in animals or food, it's hard to imagine it," said Charlie Powell, spokesman for the veterinary school.

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While it may not be as dramatic as flying jetliners into buildings, or taking over a school, bioterrorism has the potential to kill far more people, WSU officials said.

The WSU College of Veterinary Medicine is on the front lines of the war on terrorism, part of a nationwide early warning system to detect if bioterrorists have struck the United States.

Last February, President Bush ordered the federal government to develop new procedures to protect the nation's food supply from terror attack. He called for creation of systems to contain any outbreaks of plant or animal disease that result from terror attack, and to prevent or cure the diseases themselves.

It is vets who must fight those threats.

If terrorists try to contaminate cattle, poultry or other farm animals, Dr. Terry McElwain, director of the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab, would be among the first to know.

The lab, created in 1974, can quickly perform tests on thousands of samples. After the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, the WSU lab became one of 12 in a national network responsible for spotting exotic disease outbreaks in animals. Veterinarians have extensive training in comparative medicine, diagnoses of exotic and emerging diseases, and diseases that affect both humans and animals, she noted. They are also trained to recognize symptoms of disease agents that would rank high among the options for terrorists.
 

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Cindy Horney is one of seven people who filed suit against Golden Corral restaurants after becoming ill from salmonella poisoning last year.

The Georgia Division of Public Health a year ago today announced that from early June through late August 2003, a total of 23 people were infected with the bacteria salmonella berta. Of those 23 confirmed cases, 18 had links to the Golden Corral.

Horney and the six others are represented by Bill Marler, a Seattle-based attorney who specializes in food contamination personal injury cases, and William Lanham of the Atlanta firm Johnson & Ward. The two attorneys, who would not say how much they're seeking for the plaintiffs, represented several Georgia families who sued White Water park after an E. coli outbreak in 1998.

The restaurant was closed for several days in September 2003 while state health officials searched for a source of contamination. Equipment and surfaces were thoroughly scrubbed and sanitized. Bacteria later were found in a floor drain. Health officials said the bacteria may have been on a piece of equipment that was washed during the recent extensive cleaning, and that water ended up flowing into the floor drain.

In health inspections in the two years before the incident, the restaurant received scores of 98 and higher. In its last inspection in May, the restaurant received a perfect score of 100.
 

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The number of confirmed salmonella cases from an outbreak traced to the Sheetz convenience store chain hasn't changed in the last month or so, meaning the outbreak is at an end.

The Beaver County Times reports that although there were 330 confirmed cases in Pennsylvania and at least 80 in neighboring states, Pennsylvania Department of Health spokesman Richard McGarvey said Friday there were probably many more cases related to the outbreak that went unreported.

That, McGarvey said, is because some people who may have been sickened in the outbreak did not go to the doctor, so there was no official diagnosis made. McGarvey said there's no way of knowing how many unreported cases there might have been.

The outbreak is thought to have been caused by contaminated Roma tomatoes served at nearly 16 Sheetz stores in western Pennsylvania and along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The FDA is still investigating whether the tomatoes were contaminated at the supplier, Coronet Foods of Wheeling, West Virginia.
 

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A strain of salmonella never before seen in Kansas is making people sick. The Sedgwick County Health Department says it is investigating 13 cases of Salmonella Group B.

The strain is passed through raw and undercooked meat, eggs and poultry. But at this time, the health department can't explain the reason outbreak.

Officials have found no common link in any of the cases.

The victims range in age from 1 to 57, and three people have been hospitalized.
 

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