Salmonella Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark : Salmonella Blog

This week's food safety infosheet from the International Food Safety Network highlights a recent Salmonella outbreak that was traced to a Quizno's restaurant in Rochester, Minnesota.  From the infosheet:

Doug Schultz, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health was quoted as saying "We're still investigating the outbreak, and part of that investigation involves produce items being the likely vehicle for the contamination."

Tomatoes are suspected, but no definitive cause has been confirmed. The restaurant reopened after certification from Olmsted County Public Health.

Other Salmonella outbreaks have been traced to contaminated tomatoes.  In 2004, Sheetz convenience stores were the source of a Salmonella outbreak that resulted in hundreds of illnesses. 

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Commentary from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Recent incidents of food-borne disease, including the one apparently involving produce used by Taco Bell restaurants, indicates, according to this editorial, the need for greater federal oversight. Despite more than 12,000 food-processing plants in the United States, the budget of a key federal watchdog, the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, has been cut by 37 percent since 2003.

Last year, the agency conducted 4,573 inspections. The goal this year: 3,400. While the number of federal inspectors and inspections is declining, the New York Times reports, the number of illnesses linked to produce have jumped sharply, doubling between 1998 and 2004.

The fragmented approach to food safety must be streamlined and bolstered if the public is to be protected. E. coli and other pathogens don't merely give people a stomach ache; they can kill. Three people died and 200 more were sickened in September from E. coli in California-raised fresh spinach sold in supermarkets. Later, Salmonella in fresh tomatoes served in restaurants made another 200 people ill.

Against that backdrop, the new Congress should prepare to make the changes necessary to retain public confidence in the safety of the nation's food supply.

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Commentary from Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.  Full Article

Americans should be eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, not less. That’s why the recent food poisoning outbreaks linked to fresh produce contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 are so troubling. This month’s outbreak at Taco Bell—shredded lettuce is the suspected culprit—and September’s outbreak linked to fresh bagged spinach provide a fresh reminder: Despite similar outbreaks in years past (linked to scallions, lettuce, raspberries and melons), the federal government is doing far too little to close the gaping holes in America’s food safety net.

Contaminated foods kill about 5,000 Americans each year, and sicken another 76 million, according to the Centers for Disease Control. While the numbers seem enormous, what often isn’t counted is the cost to survivors, who sometimes suffer loss of kidney function, miscarriage, colitis or reactive arthritis after a bout of food poisoning. The liability costs of the recent spinach outbreak may well exceed $100 million, money that should have been invested in preventing the outbreak with more effective oversight of growers.

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