Food Safety in Minnesota – Time for Change
I am a food safety lawyer. I represent foodborne illness survivors in cases against food producers and retailers responsible for selling food poisoned with E. coli, Salmonella, Shigella, Listeria, Campylobacter, and other dangerous pathogens.
Minnesota and 42 other states are in the midst of the latest foodborne outbreak: adulterated peanut butter and peanut paste traced back to the Blakely, Georgia plant of Peanut Corporation of America. This outbreak has sickened scores of Minnesotans and has been implicated in at least three deaths including senior citizens Shirley Almer and Clifford Tousignant, both of whom were residents of nursing homes in the Brainerd area (our firm represents Ms. Almer’s heirs).
Although the Minnesota Department of Health was instrumental in identifying the source of this outbreak (as well as another well-publicized Salmonella outbreak involving peppers in 2008), Minnesota can and should do more to protect its citizens from the dangers of unsafe food. For example, many states, not including Minnesota, require that restaurants post the results of sanitation inspections. The obvious reason is that consumers, armed with the knowledge of which restaurants are clean and safe, can make informed choices about which establishments to patronize. Posting such scores is also a strong incentive for restaurant owners to clean and maintain their restaurants so as not to get poor scores in the first place.
Minnesota should also require more explicit food labeling (even if it means that such laws run afoul of federal labeling laws). As this peanut butter recall painfully illustrates, it’s often difficult to trace back commercial ingredients to their source. Thus, many Minnesota stores – large and small – continue to sell products containing the recalled peanut paste. With more effective labeling, sellers could quickly determine if products contain recalled ingredients and remove them from sale.
As Minnesotans, we can be proud of the stellar job performed by the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. However, we can and should do more to protect our citizens from the dangers of food poisoning.
Tags: food safety, foodborne illness
