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Peanut Butter Salmonella Case Exposes Loophole

By PritzkerLaw

Federal lawmakers say they will hold hearings soon to examine ways to strengthen food safety laws to protect against  a repeat of food poisoning outbreaks like the current one involving Salmonella Typhimurium and peanut products made at a plant in South Georgia.

The wave of 500 illnesses and up to eight deaths that are now linked to the Blakely, Georgia, plant of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) has exposed at least one major regulatory gap: Food companies don't have to report possible contamination of their plants when internal testing shows positive results for pathogens like Salmonella.

 The issue was explored today in a news story by The Associated Press that quoted Minneapolis lawyer Fred Pritzker and other nationally recognized food safety experts. Infuriated by the loophole, food safety advocates and lawmakers want legislation that would mandate companies to alert authorities at the first sign of trouble.

In the case of Peanut Corporation of America, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration said this week that the company did not alert state or federal authorities when the company documented 12 positive tests for Salmonella between 2007 and 2008. There were no requirements to report the results and the company continued to ship product after retesting came up negative, the FDA said.

Pritzker, who represents the next-of-kin of two people who died in the outbreak, said he doubts any states have such a requirement because those requirements would be more restrictive than the federal government.

Pritzker, the founder and president of Pritzker | Olsen, P.A., a national food safety law firm, filed a Salmonella wrongful death lawsuit  Monday against PCA for the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer, 72, of Perham. Mrs. Almer died Dec. 21 with a Salmonella infection matching the outbreak strain. She had eaten peanut butter made at the Georgia plant before any of the product had been recalled. Minnesota health officials later confirmed that the peanut butter in use at Mrs. Almer's nursing home contained the same strain of Samonella alive in the outbreak.

Pritzker also represents the family of Doris Flatguard, 87, another Minnesota nursing home resident who died after developing a Salmonella infection tied to peanut butter produced by PCA. A lawsuit in that case is expected to be filed soon.

According to The AmLaw Daily, PCA may be represented by Alan Maxwell, a partner in Atlanta-based Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial. Pritzker has been up against Maxwell in foodborne illness cases in the past.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on January 29, 2009 (boomark / email).