New Law Blogs

CDC Still Telling Consumers Not to Eat Sprouts

By PritzkerLaw

Officials investigating a widely dispersed outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul first focused on a single grower of alfalfa sprouts in Nebraska before fanning out and finding matching Salmonella contamination at sprout growers in Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In the end, federal authorities determined that all the growers received contaminated seeds that traced back to a single seed grower in Italy. Preliminary details of the investigation were released this week in a news release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC, along with the Food and Drug Administration, continue to warn Americans not to eat raw alfalfa sprouts.

Since the outbreak began in early February, the outbreak had sickened 228 people in 13 states. About 4 percent of victims have been hospitalized and no deaths have been reported, the press release said.

National food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen represents victims in this outbreak and is currently accepting additional cases from every state involved. The firm has considerable experience and a reputation for success in representing survivors of foodborne illness. Fred Pritzker and members of his firm are frequent guests and commentators about food safety issues and have been interviewed by and profiled in a number of media sources including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press and CNN.

To contact a Salmonella lawyer at Pritzker Olsen, call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or write to us online for a free case consultation.

State by State

Overall, the numbers of confirmed cases by state look like this: Nebraska (110 cases), Iowa (35), South Dakota (35), Michigan (18), Kansas (8), Pennsylvania (7), Minnesota (5), Ohio (3), Illinois (2), West Virginia (2), Florida (1), North Carolina (1) and Utah (1) .

The CDC report said regulators are still checking the degree to which the various sprout growers  appropriately and consistently implemented FDA recommendations to protect against pathogens in sprouts. The guidelines, issued in 1995, include seed disinfection and tests of water used to grow sprouts.

The report said alfalfa seeds could become contaminated in several ways, although the exact method is unknown. Possible methods include pre-harvest contamination from use of contaminated water, the use of improperly composted manure as fertilizer, fecal contamination from domestic or wild animals and runoff from animal production facilities.

"Alfalfa seeds are produced for agricultural use, and might not be processed, handled, and stored under conditions appropriate for human food,'' the report said. Preventing seed contamination is vital because the conditions suitable for growing sprouts are also ideal for increasing counts of bacteria that might be present on seeds, the report said.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on May 08, 2009 (boomark / email).