Peanut Butter Salmonella Probe Very Active

Posted by on Jan 18, 2009 in Injury | 0 comments

> Federal health officials are urging consumers to "postpone" eating cookies, crackers, cereal, ice cream and other products that contain peanut butter or peanut paste until experts determine which products contain potentially contaminated ingredients from a plant in Georgia.

The precaution is part of an effort to protect consumers from an ongoing outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium that has been associated with six deaths and 474 illnesses in 43 states. Leading food safety lawyer Fred Pritzker has initiated a Peanut Corporation of America Lawsuit on behalf of the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer, one of the deceased.

Pritzker was interviewed by the ABC and CBS affiliate TV networks in Minneapolis-St. Paul to discuss the outbreak. He told KSTP-TV that the situation is difficult for consumers because they can’t readily tell what peanut butter products will put them at risk for getting sick.

The founder and president of Pritzker Law told WCCO-TV that Mrs. Almer was "the canary in the coal mine” because her Salmonella illness and death on Dec. 21 led Minnesota health investigators to be the first to associate the outbreak with peanut butter made at the Blakely, Georgia, plant of Peanut Corporation of America.

Mrs. Almer, 72, was living in a long-term care facility when she consumed a piece of toast topped with King Nut creamy peanut butter. When the facility’s open container of peanut butter was tested, Minnesota officials found a genetic match to the strain of Salmonella that first emerged in mid-September. Soon after, Peanut Corporation of America and Ohio-based King Nut Companies, a distributor of peanut butter made at the Georgia plant, announced product recalls.

Investigation Update

Scientists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration briefed reporters Saturday afternoon on the latest developments of the investigation. Here are updates from the press conference:

  1. Peanut Corporation of America has idled its George plant pending the Salmonella investigation.
  2. The company also has expanded its recall to include all peanut butter made at the plant since August 8, 2008; and all peanut paste made at the plant since September 26, 2008.
  3. The potentially contaminated peanut butter was sold in bulk containers ranging in size from five pounds to 1,700 pounds. The peanut paste (ground roasted peanuts) was sold in bulk containers ranging in size from 35 pounds to tanker loads.
  4. Federal authorities, working with food makers who bought ingredients from the Georgia plant, are developing a detailed list of products that may contain adulterated peanut stock. The list will be posted soon on the FDA’s website.
  5. Kellogg Company has expanded an alert to consumers that recalls snack crackers containing peanut butter. Kellogg also is recalling 7 million select snack packs of Famous Amos peanut butter cookies and Keebler Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter cookies.
  6. Food companies that bought peanut butter or peanut paste from the Georgia plant to use as ingredients in cookies, cakes, candies, cereal, ice cream and other products are being urged to issue product recalls if necessary.
  7. The FDA and CDC continue to say that no association has been found between the outbreak and name-brand peanut butter that consumers buy at grocery stores. The bulk peanut butter made by Peanut Corporation of America was sold to nursing homes, hospitals, school cafeterias and other commercial accounts.
  8. The most severe illnesses are being found in young, elderly and immuno-compromised patients.
  9. 23 percent of people infected by the bacteria have been hospitalized.

If you or someone you love has been sickened by the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact the salmonella lawyers at Pritzker Law . The firm has collected millions of dollars on behalf of food poisoning victims.

Pritzker Opens Salmonella Death Suit

Posted by on Jan 16, 2009 in Injury | 0 comments

Leading food safety lawyer Fred Pritzker initiated a lawsuit Thursday on behalf of the heirs of Shirley Mae Almer, a 72-year-old Minnesota woman who is one of five people to have died after falling ill to a Salmonella Typhimurium infection.

Pritzker, an outspoken critic of the federal food safety system, said the family is deeply disturbed about the food poisoning that contributed to Mrs. Almer’s death on Dec. 21. A widow, she was living in a long-term care facility in Brainerd when she consumed peanut butter that state health officials have since confirmed was contaminated by the same strain of Salmonella bacteria that has sickened at least 448 people in 43 states since mid-September. The onset of most cases came after Oct. 1.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday that five deaths may be associated with the outbreak, including two in Minnesota, two in Virginia and one in Idaho. Pritzker said the two Minnesota victims are Almer and a man in his 70s who also lived in a long-term care facility. Both individuals had underlying health conditions. Almer was battling cancer when she became infected by the Salmonella bacteria, Pritzker said.

Pritzker’s Minneapolis-based firm, Pritzker Law , also represented some of the victims of the 2007 Salmonella outbreak associated with Peter Pan peanut butter. The firm filed documents in Hennepin County District Court Thursday that will establish Almer’s son, Jeffrey Almer, as trustee for the woman’s heirs. The filing is a precursor to a civil complaint that Pritzker said he will file very soon against Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America and King Nut Companies of Solon, Ohio.
Peanut Corporation of America, a manufacturer of peanut butter, and King Nut Companies, a distributor, have both announced voluntary peanut butter recalls related to the Salmonella outbreak.
Minnesota has been hit hard by the Salmonella outbreak. At least 33 confirmed cases have been reported by the Minnesota Department of Health, including 13 people who were hospitalized. Only three other states have reported more illnesses than Minnesota.
Nationally, the age of patients in the outbreak have ranged from less than 1 to 98. The CDC said 22 percent of people with confirmed infections have been hospitalized.
The CDC has said common brands of peanut butter sold in grocery stores have not been associated with the outbreak. The products sold and distributed by Peanut Corporation of America and King Nut Companies are sold only to food service accounts such as nursing homes, hospitals, schools and cafeterias.
The CDC said Thursday it is continuing to investigate exposures that Salmonella outbreak patients had to peanut butter and "peanut butter-containing products.” Earlier this week, Kellogg Company announced an inventory hold of certain Keebler and Austin brand sandwich crackers containing peanut butter. Kellogg said it is holding all inventories of the products under its control as a precaution because Peanut Corporation of America is one of its suppliers of peanut paste used in the making of the crackers.

Pritzker, whose firm is one of the few in the country practicing extensively in the area of  foodborne illness litigation , has experience in practically all major food poisoning outbreaks.

Salmonella in Peanut Butter Confirmed

Posted by on Jan 14, 2009 in Injury | 0 comments

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found evidence that commercially sold peanut butter is the “likely source” of a Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak that may have contributed to three deaths.

In all, the CDC said Monday that 410 people in 43 states have been sickened by the same genetically matched bacteria. The government health agency said it is still investigating the cause of the outbreak, but for the first time CDC officials said Monday that the King Nut brand of peanut butter was the only peanut butter in use at long-term care facilities, hospitals, schools and other institutions where clusters of infections occurred in several states.

“To date, no association has been found with common brand names of peanut butter sold in grocery stores,” the CDC said.

Ohio-based King Nut Companies has voluntarily recalled all King Nut and Parnell’s Pride containers of peanut butter that it sells. The company has said the products are only sold to commercial food service accounts, not retail stores. The peanut butter is manufactured by Virginia-based Peanut Corporation of America.

Health investigators in Minnesota first identified King Nut peanut butter as the possible source of the outbreak. Over the weekend, the state’s departments of agriculture and health did further testing of Salmonella bacteria they found in a five-pound tub of King Nut creamy peanut butter that was in use at a long-term care facility where one of Minnesota’s 30 illnesses was reported.

According to a press release, the lab analyses confirmed a genetic match between the strains of Salmonella bacteria found in the container and the strains of bacteria associated with the outbreak illnesses around the country.

But the Minnesota team will continue its investigation. Officials said they will test tubs of the peanut butter never before opened. There is a chance the open container that tested positive for the outbreak strain of Salmonella was cross-contaminated from something else.

The CDC did not provide information about the three outbreak illnesses where death occurred. A spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Health has said a Minnesota woman in her 70s who had other health conditions died with an infection.

Advice to consumers:

The CDC said persons who think they may have become ill from eating peanut butter should consult their health care providers.

In addition, if you have been sickened by this outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium, you may be entitled to compensation (King Nut Peanut Butter Lawsuit).  To contact our law firm, please call 612-338-0202, 1-800-377-8900 (toll-free) or submit our free case consultation form.

According to the latest breakdown of known cases from the CDC, 410 people have been sickened in 43 states. The top four states are Texas with 55 cases, Ohio with 53, Massachusetts with 40 and Minnesota with 30.

Among 388 persons with dates available, illness began between Sept. 15, 2008, and Jan. 7, 2009. Most illnesses began after Oct. 1. Patients range in age from less than 1 to 98 years; 48 percent are female and 18 percent have been hospitalized.