MINNEAPOLIS, Feb 28, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Restaurants, commercial kitchens and other food service providers should cease serving raw sprouts of any kind unless an explicit food safety warning is provided on menus, national E. coli lawyer Fred Pritzker announced.

Pritzker, who represents victims of foodborne illness in practically every major U.S. outbreak, said that more than a decade of concentrated effort by regulators and sprout suppliers has failed to make raw sprouts safe to eat. The latest of far too many outbreaks has sickened customers of the sandwich chain Jimmy John’s in Michigan, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Wisconsin and Arkansas. Officials suspect pathogenic contamination in seeds sold to growers — a common source of poisoning in sprouts. Late last week, Michigan public health officials issued a statewide alert for citizens to avoid eating raw clover sprouts due to an outbreak of E. coli O26 associated with seven illnesses, including at least two victims who are confirmed to be part of the food poisoning at Jimmy John’s.

“These people suffered severe pain due to a collapse of food safety measures,” said Pritzker, one of four national figures chosen to debate the dangers of raw milk earlier this month at Harvard University. “If consumers are going to be put in harm’s way, justice demands they be forewarned.”

Many restaurants have already removed raw sprouts from their offerings. For those who persist in selling them in ready-to-eat food, an explicit public warning should be mandatory, Pritzker said. The warning should alert consumers to the risk of life-threatening virulent bacteria, he said.

Toxic E. coli is the latest pathogen to contaminate sprouts in a multi-state outbreak, but Salmonella and Listeria also have a history of harboring in sprouts sold into the food supply. A sprout E. coli outbreak centered in Germany last year killed more than 50 people and sent more than 840 to the hospital with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

In just the past three years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has publicly tracked six separate sprout outbreaks that have sickened more than 4,500 people. And by the government’s own admission, FDA guidelines for seed suppliers and sprout growers would not have detected the strain of toxic E. coli in the Jimmy John’s outbreak.

“The only way to make sprouts safe is to cook them,” Pritzker said. “Serving them raw to an unsuspecting public is irresponsible and should be banned.”

E. coli outbreak victims and their families can contact food safety attorney Fred Pritzker by calling his law firm at 1-888-377-8900 (toll free). PritzkerOlsen, P.A. is a nationally recognized food safety law firm that has collected millions for E. coli food poisoning victims. The firm represents E. coli victims throughout the United States and has offices at Plaza Seven, Suite 2950, 45 South Seventh Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402.

Ms. Grabowski, a college freshman in New York, is one of 26 confirmed and 7 probable cases related to this outbreak. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

As of May 20, 2010, a total of 26 confirmed and 7 probable cases related to this outbreak have been reported from 5 states since March 1, 2010. The number of ill persons identified in each state with this strain is: MI (11 confirmed and 2 probable), NY (5 confirmed and 2 probable), OH (8 confirmed and 3 probable), PA (1 confirmed), and TN (1 confirmed). The reported cases in Tennessee and Pennsylvania do not reflect expansion of the outbreak but retrospective identification of cases using the PulseNet system – these cases are part of the original cluster due to the original implicated lot of lettuce from March.

As a result of her E. coli O145 illness, Ms. Grabowski developed Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), a potentially lethal condition known to cause severe kidney damage, neurologic deficits and hypertension.

This outbreak, another one involving leafy green vegetables, points to the need for significant regulation of an industry responsible for repeated outbreaks.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued its final report on the outbreak on May 21, but so far refused to identify the farm at which the implicated romaine lettuce was grown.

Every case and every client is unique and deserves the benefit of a close attorney-client bond.

I recently wrote about the long-term prognosis for people who suffer hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) induced by E. coli O157:H7. This is because many people who suffer this devastating illness have life-long and very severe medical problems that show up long after the acute phase of the illness is over.

Many HUS victims are children. Their parents suffer along with them. The fear and uncertainty of loving a child with chronic medical problems is a constant stress that intrudes on the parents and siblings of a child with HUS.

A recent medical journal article supports the notion that the impact of HUS is not limited to the disease survivor. The paper, Emotional and Behavioral Changes in Parents of Children Affected by Hemolytic-Uremic Syndrome Associated With Verocytotoxin-Producing Escherichia Coli: A Qualitative Analysis, concludes:

This [data] demonstrated that intense emotional distress was commonplace at the 1-year follow-up, demonstrating that emotional strain is present long after the acute phase of the child’s illness. The finding that fear of unknown long-term repercussions, relapse, and reinfection were still causing distress and rumination 1 year later suggests that dealing with an infected child is chronic stress…

On a personal note, my wife and I are the parents of 25 year-old young man with a genetic disorder characterized by physical and cognitive challenges. Loving a child with medical issues is one of the most challenging problems faced by parents. It affects virtually every family decision and not a day goes by without its consequences reverberating throughout the home.

Are parents compensated for this emotional stress? From a legal standpoint that depends on the law of the state in which the illness occurred but, sadly, it’s not enough.

Many states only allow recovery for the diseased individual. Some allow recovery, but only in cases in which the parent was in the “zone of danger” (meaning they were at risk for injury as well).

Fewer still recognize the obvious harm and loss that parents suffer when their children face a life of medical problems related to HUS. It’s never right when common sense and the medical literature recognizes a problem for which the law offers little or no remedy.

This outbreak involved blade- or needle-tenderized beef that few people realize carries an E. coli risk similar to hamburger. Our office issued this press release today to keep the issue in the public light:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Cleveland, OH – (Business Wire) - Attorney Fred Pritzker has been retained by an 18 year-old woman from Ashtabula, Ohio who suffered E. coli O157:H7 poisoning and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) linked to adulterated beef products recalled by National Steak and Poultry, an Owasso, Oklahoma meat processor. The young woman was hospitalized for weeks and almost died. She was on dialysis for months and now suffers from decreased kidney function and hypertension. She faces a lifetime of medical problems and medical bills that should have been prevented.

National Steak and Poultry recalled 248,000 pounds of beef products on December 24, 2009, following an investigation that found an association between the company’s steaks and an E. coli O157 outbreak in Ohio and other states.

The recalled beef products, so-called “non-intact beef products,” were mechanically tenderized. This usually involves putting rougher cuts of beef through a machine that utilizes a set of needles or blades which pierce the meat and break down connective tissue.

Unfortunately, this process is also known to push E. coli O157:H7 on the surface of the raw meat into its center (so-called “translocation”).  If the meat is then served rare or medium rare, its center is not heated sufficiently to kill off the E. coli O157:H7.

According to Fred Pritzker,  “This is at least the fourth E. coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with mechanically tenderized beef.”

“Meat companies and restaurants don’t warn consumers about mechanical tenderization and the dangers that go with it,” Pritzker said.  “They don’t want consumers to be able to make informed choices because they’re afraid it will hurt sales.”

According to Pritzker, this outbreak highlights the need for a number of changes including

• Requiring producers to use microbiological decontamination technologies on meat products before mechanical tenderization
• Requiring labeling changes that alert consumers to the existence of and dangers associated with mechanical tenderization
• Creating and mandating public outreach programs alerting consumers to this practice

Attorney Fred Pritzker represents E. coli victims nationwide. He can be reached at 1-888-377-8900 (TOLL FREE).  His offices are in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

MINNEAPOLIS — Through litigation and new laws, there is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to the safety of American food. In the past several years, pathogens such as Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 have caused outbreaks associated with many types of food, including spinach, peanut butter, cookie dough, spices and meat. An estimated 76 million people annually become sick in these types of foodborne illness outbreaks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Frankly we’re having too many outbreaks; too many people are becoming sickened by foodborne illness and I think we are long overdue in making some changes,” said food safety lawyer Fred Pritzker in an interview with Comcast Newsmakers.

Those changes are hopefully on their way, he says, in the form of legislation coalescing into two major food safety bills—one in the U.S. House of Representatives that has already passed and one in the Senate that’s expected to be taken up some time during 2010. These bills, if passed, would constitute Congress’s first major food safety legislation in nearly 70 years.

Money, manpower and the implementation of comprehensive rules are some of the key elements Pritzker says legislators need to consider in their food safety reform efforts.

The ability to trace pathogens back to the source of contamination is also essential, he says, as is the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to order a recall, which the agency currently can’t do. Both the House and Senate versions of the bill would grant the FDA the authority to recall contaminated foods, rather than relying on the food producer to voluntarily issue the recall, as well as increase the rate of inspection for food producers.

Lawsuits that hold food producers accountable for the safety of their products also play a part in shaping food safety policies and procedures, Pritzker says.

“Just as product liability litigation made cars safer, litigation makes food safer,” Pritzker said. “Companies don’t want to risk liability and therefore they’re incentivized to a great extent to make food safety a greater priority because otherwise they’re going to pay for it.”

Fred Pritzker is founder and president of Minneapolis, Minn. – based Pritzker Olsen Attorneys, one of the few law firms in the United States that practices extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. The firm has collected millions of dollars on behalf of victims of food poisoning. For more information, visit our web site or call 1-888-377-8900. Pritzker Olsen has offices at Plaza VII Building, Suite 2950, 45 S. Seventh St., Minneapolis, MN 55402.

That excellent advice came in 2005 when Minnesota public health investigators wrote about 12 confirmed cases of E. coli O157:H7 from non-intact, blade-tenderized frozen steaks that had been sold by door-to-door vendors in Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, North Dakota and Kansas. Three of the victims were hospitalized, including a 52-year-old patient who was treated for 25 days after developing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), and was discharged with “residual neurological deficits.”

Four years later and our national food safety law firm, Pritzker Olsen Attorneys, is investigating a possible steak E. coli outbreak associated with at least one large United States restaurant chain. Nothing official has come out as of yet, but we have been contacted by E. coli O157:H7 survivors who may have been infected by meat injected by tenderizing ingredients. The outbreak is believed to have reached multiple states.

These injections and other mechanical tenderizing techniques may enhance flavor but can be dangerous to consumers when brine is contaminated and when meat isn’t cooked well. Even some restaurant cooks may mistakenly believe that all steaks can be safely served rare in the middle. That’s true with intact, untouched steaks because any bacteria is on the surface and is easily killed.

But when steaks are tenderized with brine or mechanical blading, the processes can drive pathogens into the center of the meat, like hamburger. In those cases, an instant-read themometer should be used to ensure proper cooking.

Here’s what the 2005 report said: ” These processing methods create new challenges for prevention of O157 infections. Food regulatory officials should re-evaluate safety issues presented by nonintact steak products, such as microbiologic hazards of processing methods, possible labeling to distinguish intact from non-intact steaks and education of the public and commercial food estabshments on the increased risk associated with undercooked nonintact steaks.”

This is important when considering case counts in the midst of an outbreak investigation. Public health officials will sometimes announce an outbreak even if there are only one or two confirmed matches between a food source and an illness.

If officials say the investigation is continuing, usually that means the number of confirmed cases in an outbreak will grow because of the lag time between a person consuming the bacteria and health officials positively confirming an outbreak case of E. coli O157:H7 through DNA fingerprinting.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), here’s a breakdown of the timeline and how long each step can take:

• Incubation time: The time from eating the contaminated food to the beginning of symptoms. For E. coli O157, this is typically 3-4 days.
• Time to treatment: The time from the first symptom until the person seeks medical care, when a diarrhea sample is collected for laboratory testing. This time lag may be 1-5 days.
• Time to diagnosis: The time from when a person gives a sample to when E. coli O157 is obtained from it in a laboratory. This may be 1-3 days from the time the sample is received in the laboratory.
• Sample shipping time: The time required to ship the bacteria from the laboratory to the state public health authorities that will perform “DNA fingerprinting”. This may take 0-7 days depending on transportation arrangements within a state and the distance between the clinical laboratory and public health department.
• Time to “DNA fingerprinting”: The time required for the state public health authorities to perform “DNA fingerprinting” on the E. coli O157 and compare it with the outbreak pattern. Ideally this can be accomplished in 1 day. However, many public health laboratories have limited staff and space, and experience multiple emergencies at the same time. Thus, the process may take 1-4 days.

That’s because an unknown quantity of the more than half-million pounds of  beef products recalled by Fairbank Farms on October 31 is still lurking in freezers of consumers. Therefore, the investigation into this outbreak by the CDC and several state health departments is continuing and CDC has issued advice to consumers.

So far there has been a cluster of 26 people from eight states infected with the outbreak strains of  E. coli O157:H7. One of the victims is a 5-year-old boy from Auburn, Maine, who was hospitalized for three weeks with E. coli HUS after eating ground beef tainted with E. coli O157:H7. His illness has been affirmatively matched to the outbreak. This young victim is represented by our national food safety firm, Pritzker Olsen Attorneys.

In my opinion, the needless suffering of all the people sickened so far in this outbreak only serves to underscore the need for more stringent testing in the meat industry. We can only hope that all consumers who purchased the contaminated ground beef produced by Fairbank Farms and sold through various retailers recognize the danger before they, too, suffer the consequences of lax testing and oversight.

The outbreak is centered in the Northeast, including the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and New York. The CDC is urging consumers to check their refrigerators and freezers for beef products produced by this firm and purchased on or after September 15, 2009. The meat has establishment number EST 492 stamped in the USDA mark of inspection, with product date codes of 091409, 091509 and 091609.

According to the most recent CDC snapshot of the outbreak — taken on November 20 — the latest reported illness began November 6. Here is the CDC’s chart of when the illnesses began. But, remember, the time from the beginning of the patient’s illness to the confirmation that he or she was part of an outbreak is typically about 2-3 weeks. Case counts in the midst of an outbreak investigation must be interpreted within this context.

Now a graduate student at the University of Saskatchewan is said to have created a vaccine to reduce other types of Shiga-toxin producing E. coli bacteria, or non-0157 STECs.  Though E. coli O157 is the most prevalent STEC bacteria in North America, others are more dominant around the world. In Europe, O26 is the most common. In South America, it is O111. And there have been outbreaks involving 026 and 0111 in the United States.

The breakthrough by student microbiologist David Asper, which the University of Saskatchewan says is soon to be published, still must withstand three to five years of intensive testing in mice and cattle. And further more, like the vaccine already being sold for E. coli O157:H7 by Epitopix LLC, it must gain market acceptance by cattle ranchers to do any good for humans.

But it is somewhat heartening to families who have experienced severe illness or death from E. coli ground beef outbreaks that science continues to work on solutions. Hamburger E. coli outbreaks invariably bring cases of STEC infection that lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a life-threatening disease that can cause renal failure, strokes, brain damage, spinal cord injury, heart problems and hemorrhaging. Children under 5 are the most susceptible and persons over 60 are most likely to die from the poison.

Asper’s vaccine would work by preventing non-O157 STEC organisms from attaching to the intestines of cattle. The bacteria commonly live in the hind guts of cattle without doing them harm. They can contaminate meat during the slaughtering process, when the intestines are nicked or when feces compacted on the animals’ hides spreads to carcasses. The microbes get ground into the meat during the making of hamburger and can survive in the core of the patty if the internal cooking temperature of the hamburger doesn’t reach 160 degrees.

In the U.S., E. coli O157:H7  is banned from ground beef, making it an adulterant. But in one of the many safety gaps that exist in our food safety system, no such classification is given to non-O157:H7 STECs.

Due to improved detection methods, cases of non-O157 E. coli infection are on the rise, increasing the importance of having the second-generation vaccine. “We can protect humans by vaccinating animals before they come in contact with the pathogen. I think that’s very important work that will lead to a lot fewer infections,” Asper said in The Star Phoenix newspaper.

Vilsack said the Times report by Michael Moss, which focused on a 2007 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to Cargill hamburger patties, is boosting his department’s effort to fight E. coli.

Especially in children, cancer patients and older adults, the pathogen can lead to hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), an attack on red blood cells that can result in kidney failure, heart problems, strokes, brain damage and spinal cord injury. One of the victims of the Cargill ground beef E. coli outbreak was a young dance instructor who suffered paralysis after contracting E. coli HUS.

E. coli O157:H7 was banned from ground beef in 1994, but grinding plants aren’t required to test incoming beef trim and scrap that is used to make ground beef. In fact, as the Times story showed, some big slaughterhouses won’t sell meat to grinders if the plants test the shipments for E. coli. That’s because a positive result would likely mandate a multi-customer recall of the supplier’s meat.

U.S. Representative Louise M. Slaughter, D- New York, and chairwoman of the Rules Committee, read parts of  The New York Times article on  the House floor this week and said the lingering pathogens in meat and the industry’s use of antibiotics were threatening to harm exports of beef to Europe. Rep. Slaughter is a microbiologist.

“We’ve got to get people to understand what’s going on here,” she said.

One of the big moments in the story was Costco’s food safety director saying industry giant Tyson wouldn’t sell beef trim to Costco’s grinding operation because Costco’s policy is to test incoming shipments. Tyson did not respond to the statement directly.

A follow-up story in the Times said Costco has reached an agreement with Tyson that allows Costco to test the trimmings before they are mixed with those from other suppliers.

The food safety officer at American Foodservice, which grinds 365 million pounds of hamburger a year, said it stopped testing trimmings a decade ago because of resistance from slaughterhouses. “They would not sell to us,” said Timothy P. Biela, the officer. “If I test and it’s positive, I put them in a regulatory situation. So we don’t do that.”

Dr. Kenneth Petersen, an assistant administrator with the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), told the Times that his agency could mandate testing, but that it needed to consider the impact on companies as well as consumers.

“I have to look at the entire industry, not just what is best for public health,” Dr. Petersen said.

In damage-control mode after Peterson’s comment was aired in the Times story, Vilsack said in his prepared statement that public health and food safety was USDA’s  priority. But he didn’t address whether USDA would consider mandating E. coli tests of ingredients that arrive at grinding plants.

The Times story was an important national story because it showed that eating ground beef is still a gamble. There have been 16 ground beef E. coli outbreaks in the past three years. In the Cargill E. coli hamburger outbreak of 2007, the company recalled 845,000 pounds of ground beef produced at its plant in Butler, Wisconsin, after people began to fall ill.

The “Angus Beef Patties” found to be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 were really made with cheap, fatty beef trim, scrap and other cheap beef ingredients that came from multiple slaughterhouses, one as far away as Uruguay. The Times story went back and traced where the ingredients came from, noting that Cargill used beef parts most likely to come in contact with E. coli during the slaughter process.

Click here to see the original Times story.