Young HUS Victim From Ohio Escaped Death
A young woman from Ashtabula, Ohio, has retained me to represent her in connection with a nearly fatal E. coli O157:H7 infection she suffered in connection with an outbreak and beef recall late last year by National Steak and Poultry Co. of Owasso, Oklahoma.
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.
A Call for Full Disclosure in Steak E coli Restaurant Outbreak
Here’s a press release that went out today from my office:
MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 7, 2010—Applebee’s and Olive Garden have been added to the list of restaurants affected by a Dec. 24 recall of nearly 250,000 pounds of steaks, medallions and other beef products that may have been tainted with E. coli O157:H7, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. Previously the only restaurants named in connection with this recall were Moe’s Southwest Grill, Carino’s Italian and 54th Street Grill & Bar owned by KRM Inc.
The news comes two weeks after the beef supplier, National Steak and Poultry, and federal officials announced the recall. Since then, 21 cases of E. coli in 16 states have been linked to this recall, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Nine of these cases required hospitalization and at least one patient contracted life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). States with confirmed cases include: California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Washington.
Applebee’s operates about 2,000 locations nationwide; Olive Garden has 695.
“There are thousands of restaurants in question—how many more people will get sick before we see a full and detailed list of restaurants where this beef was distributed?” said food safety attorney Fred Pritzker. “Two weeks is simply too long to wait for this news.”
“As a customer of NSP (National Steak and Poultry) we took immediate action when learning of this recall,” Applebee’s spokeswoman Nancy Mays told Nation’s Restaurant News. Furthermore, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) “does not agree that publicly identifying food service establishments would provide consumers greater protection from the risks associated with tainted meat or poultry.”
It is Pritzker’s opinion that these policies and procedures aren’t enough. “No matter how many future illnesses might be prevented by removing tainted meat from restaurant menus after cases have been reported, that does nothing for the people who actually got sick,” he said. “Restaurant chains and food safety officials need to understand that diners have a right to know where and how they became sick.”
Fred Pritzker is founder and president of Pritzker Olsen, P.A., one of the few law firms in the nation practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. Over the years, the firm has collected tens of millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning. The firm has offices at Plaza VII, 45 7th St. So., Suite 2950, Minneapolis, MN 55402. For more information or to contact Fred, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free), or visit our web site
Steak E. coli O157:H7 Danger Should be Labeled
Here’s the latest press release from my office:
MINNEAPOLIS, January 2010 — National food safety lawyer Fred Pritzker is calling on USDA to require E. coli O157:H7 warning labels on steaks and other beef products that have been mechanically tenderized.
In 1999, the federal agency charged with ensuring the safety of our nation’s meat supply banned E. coli O157:H7 from mechanically tenderized beef ( legally known as non-intact muscle meat) because it poses a public health risk. But special labeling of mechanically manipulated steak was never required.
Studies have shown that piercing the meat with blades, needles or injections of brine drives some surface E. coli into the center of the meat — making it unsafe to eat rare or medium. On intact steaks, surface E. coli readily die at temps hot enough to change the exterior color of the meat. Without warning labels, the vast majority of consumers can’t be sure what type of steak they are buying or whether non-intact cuts pose a threat.
Testing for E. coli at slaughter plants and processing plants catches some of the contamination when it occurs, but the testing protocols are far from foolproof and dangerous outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 are still occurring.
For instance, National Steak and Poultry on December 24th recalled 248,000 pounds of boneless steak and other beef products. The company said the potentially contaminated meat was sold to three restaurant chains: Moe’s, Carino’s Italian Grill and KRM restaurants in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Washington.
Those are the same six states where state and federal health officials have identified a cluster of at least 21 E. coli illnesses associated with contaminated blade-tenderized steaks. Another 10 states are believed to be part of the outbreak.
“It is a sad fact of life that meat processors selling adulterated products that harm or kill unsuspecting citizens often do whatever it takes to avoid responsibility for the harms and losses caused by their products,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker said packing plants, processors, restaurants, grocery stores and other purveyors of meat have been doing a great injustice to the public by not identifying steaks and roasts that have been injected or otherwise mechanically tenderized. For the sake of E. coli prevention, the federal government must step in and now require sellers to label their products with appropriate warning.
“Regulation is essentially useless if it doesn’t protect consumers from known hazards,” Pritzker said. “In this case, people have the right to know the steak they are choosing could be laced with a deadly pathogen.”
E. coli O157:H7 grows benignly in the guts of cattle and is spread to meat via fecal contamination during slaughter. When ingested by humans, the bacteria emit a powerful toxin that causes extremely painful and often bloody diarrhea.
In more than five percent of cases, the pathogen can lead to life-threatening diseases and cause permanent injury to health. The highest incidence of illness from E. coli is in children under five years of age. They suffer from hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), the leading cause of child kidney failure in the United States.
Fred Pritzker is founder and president of Pritzker Olsen, P.A., one of the few law firms in the nation practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. Over the years, the firm has collected tens of millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning. Outbreaks of foodborne disease are preventable and Pritzker Olsen actively supports various measures to reduce the threat of microbiological hazards in our food supply. For more information or to contact Fred, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free), visit our web site or email Fred at fhp@pritzkerlaw.com.
Silence by Health Officials Smacks of Favoritism
In a post that appeared on our web site a week before the USDA-FSIS announced a recall of contaminated beef produced by National Steak and Poultry, an Owasso, Oklahoma establishment, we advised of the possibility that blade tenderized steak may be the source of a nationwide E. coli O157:H7 outbreak.
Dr. Doug Powell, creator of the excellent food safety platform Barfblog, acknowledged our leadership in a recent post: “Minnesota lawyer Fred Pritzker was the first to publicly identify the potential outbreak linked to blade-tenderized steaks a week ago.”
The problem is that the official recall notice issued by USDA-FSIS on Christmas Eve is essentially useless since it fails to identify the restaurants at which the adulterated steak was served. Without that crucial information, the millions of consumers who eat steak at U.S. restaurants are left with no practical information about whether they were exposed to adulterated beef.
Our firm has been investigating this outbreak for several weeks and we are aware of at least one nationally advertised restaurant chain that is involved. But it is not possible to know the specific locations or all the restaurants involved in the outbreak without the customary listing provided in outbreaks by public health officials.
This decision smacks of regulators protecting the “good name” of national restaurant chains at the expense of consumer rights. Therefore, our law firm calls upon USDA-FSIS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (which has remained silent on this outbreak) to promptly inform the American public of all the names of all the restaurants at which this recalled beef was served.
Restaurants are liable for E. coli infections caused by the food they serve. In this case, the restaurants associated with the illnesses are liable along with the steak processor for the harm suffered by those sickened.
If you have information about this outbreak or question whether the E. coli illness of a loved one may be linked, call Pritzker Olsen at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our online contact and information form on the side of this web page.
Restaurants Need Prevention Training to Curtail Risk of Steak E. coli Outbreaks
An investigation by national food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen into a possible beef steak E. coli outbreak associated with at least one national restaurant chain raises the issue once again of bacterial contamination in non-intact cuts of beef.
There are preliminary indications that the current restaurant steak E. coli outbreak — which may have peaked in November — involves meat injected with tenderizing ingredients, which would classify them as non-intact. Between 1999 and 2003, five of six steak E. coli outbreaks associated with non-intact beef involved moisture-enhanced steaks, according to a 2003 study at Colorado State University.
Injections and mechanical blade tenderizing techniques may enhance flavor of a steak, but it can be dangerous to consumers when brine is contaminated and when meat isn’t cooked well. That is why in 1999 the federal government lumped non-intact beef together with hamburger, meaning they are considered adulterated if they carry E. coli O157:H7 — a virulent pathogen that can cause hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)
The risks associated with non-intact beef were outlined nicely in a 1996 Masters Thesis by Kansas State University graduate student Sarah Sporing. She noted that many restaurant cooks mistakenly handle injected and blade-tenderized steaks as whole cuts that can be served rare or medium rare. When cooking whole cuts, surface contamination can be killed merely by cooking the meat until it changes color.
They often don’t realize that injections translocate surface E. coli into the muscle, where it can survive if the center is undercooked. Sporing’s study showed that a standard food industry blade tenderizer transferred 3- to 4 percent of surface E. coli to the center of the meat. Injections of cross-contaminated flavoring can do the same thing.
Sporing studied the thermal destruction of bacteria in the center of E. coli steaks and found that oven broiling was more effective (shorter cooking time) at killing the pathogens than grilling the meat on a commercial gas grill or cooking it in an electric skillet. But regardless of the cooking method, she determined that the population of E. coli O157:H7 in non-intact steak could be reduced to the same safety level as intact beef if cooked to at least 140 degrees.
“To reduce risks… it is in the best interest of the meat and food service industries to encourage the use of thermometers to determine degree of doneness in all meat products,” not just ground beef, Sporing wrote.
E. coli lawyers at Pritzker Olson have been contacted by survivors of this non-intact steak E. coli outbreak. If you believe you or a loved one have suffered damages from this potential outbreak or know anything about it, please contact us at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our online contact and information form on the side of this web page.
Our firm is one of the few in the country that practices extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. We have the resources and experience to collect compensation from the parties responsible for this outbreak, including meat suppliers and restaurant corporations. If you contact us, we will provide a free case consultation. If we agree to take your case, you owe us nothing until you win.
This outbreak could have been prevented and our firm actively supports a variety of initiatives to strengthen the food safety system in America, which hasn’t undergone broad, meaningful change in 70 years. One of our clients testified this year before a Congressional food safety panel in Washington, D.C., and another client is featured in the current issue of Consumer Reports magazine that exposes widespread bacterial hazards in poultry.
Fred Pritzker On Newsmakers
