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FDA Laboratory Grants Will Help Fight E. coli O157:H7

By PritzkerLaw

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has awarded $1.05 million in grants to three states to increase laboratory testing capacity, including capacity for analyzing food and bacteria during outbreaks of foodborne illness.

The agreement  enhances federal and state cooperation and is designed to strengthen our national response to food emergencies, including outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella and other infectious diseases.

National food poisoning and food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen Attorneys is acutely aware of the importance state health departments play in tracking outbreaks of potentially deadly foodborne illnesses. In January of this year, it was Minnesota's health investigators who first tracked the cause of a 3-month-old Salmonella outbreak to peanut products from Virginia-based Peanut Corp. of America.

Pritzker Olsen represents the families of three women -- one from Ohio and two from Minnesota --   whose deaths were tied to the outbreak. The firm is one of  only a few in the country that practices extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation and its lawyers have won millions of dollars for clients. To contact food poisoning lawyers at the firm, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or write to us online for a free case consultation . 

The three states -- Arkansas, Wisconsin and Nebraska -- each receive $350,000 for Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) chemistry laboratories, the FDA said.

According to an FDA press release dated June 2, here are the highlights of each grant:

1. Arkansas – Arkansas Department of Health, Little Rock, Ark. The grant award will be used to increase the department's ability to test for toxic and unknown substances in food products, provide regional support for national responses during food surveillance activities, increase state and local emergency response capacities and become more proficient in testing foods for toxic and unknown substances.
2. Nebraska – Nebraska Department of Agriculture, Lincoln, Neb. The award will enable analyses of foods and food products in the event redundancy or additional laboratory capacity is needed for chemical-related analyses.
3. Wisconsin – Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Madison, Wis. The grant will provide for standing reserve capacity within the FERN for response to chemical-related analysis needs, or an event of such significance that it threatens the national food supply.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on June 02, 2009 (boomark / email).