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Alfalfa Sprouts Cause Salmonella Outbreak Again

By PritzkerLaw

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to announce soon a multi-state outbreak of Salmonella associated with alfalfa sprouts and the announcement may be coupled with an advisory for consumers to avoid eating sprouts.

National food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen attorneys already represents victims in this outbreak and is accepting additional cases from all the states involved. Salmomella attorneys at the firm can be reached at 1-888-377-8900 or you can readily receive a free online case consultation. 

According to pubished reports, there are currently 31 confirmed Salmonella Saintpaul cases in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia. The Michigan Department of Community Health already is telling consumers in that state to avoid alfalfa sprouts after at least two victims of the outbreak were hospitalized.

The cases reportedly have a rare fingerprint and the pattern matches a recent outbreak that started in Nebraska and included a sprouts recall by Nebraska-based CW Sprouts, aka SunSprout Enterprises Inc. Pritzker Olsen is representing victims in that outbreak.

The latest outbreak reportedly involves more than one grower of sprouts and a trade association for the fresh produce industry already is warning growers to fall back in line with specific growing guidelines created more than five years ago by the FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Health Services.

Since 1995, alfalfa sprouts emerged as a recognized source of foodborne illness, including Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7. This year, there have already been at least three Salmonella outbreaks linked to sprouts.

In the Midwest (Nebraska and Iowa especially), there was the outbreak associated with CW Sprouts; in the northeast there is a current outbreak started in early April associated with a recall of sprouts distributed by Amalgamated Produce Inc. and on April 23 another Salmonella-related recall was announced by Calco Inc. of Arcadia, California.

Pritzker Olsen is involved in virtually all major outbreaks of food poisoning and the firm is one of the few firms in the country that are intensely focused on foodborne illness litigation. The firm has collected millions of dollars on behalf of victims of food poisoning.

Currently, clients of the firm include the families of three women who died in the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak caused by peanut butter and other products made from peanuts processed by Peanut Corp. of America of West Virginia. 

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on April 26, 2009 (boomark / email).