Valley Meats Recall and E. coli Outbreak
Pritzker Olsen Attorneys, a national law firm, continues to investigate an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that has sickened several people from Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The outbreak is associated with hamburger produced by Valley Meats LLC, a Coal Valley, Illinois firm. Some of the people sickened, including children, have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), which has caused kidney failure and other serious illnesses.
Medical expenses for those sickened can be immense. Our attorneys are available for a free consultation regarding suing Valley Meats for the following:
- Medical bills
- Lost income
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
This E. coli outbreak prompted a May 21, 2009 hamburger recall. Valley Meats LLC, a Coal Valley, Illinois, establishment, recalled approximately 95,898 pounds of ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. The recalled meat had been distributed nationally to restaurants and food service companies. This means that schools may have some of this recalled meat.
Federal, state and local law prohibits the sale of adulterated food. If Valley Meats LLC distributed and sold meat products contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 it means the company violated laws that have been on the books for more than a hundred years and failed to properly test and detect lethal pathogens before the products left its facility.
It also means the restaurants that served this poisoned food similarly violated the law. Whether the meat was adulterated when it entered the restaurant, there is no question and no doubt that with proper cooking and handling, any pathogen in the food could and should have been killed off before it caused harm.
Coincidental to this tragedy, preliminary data published on May 27, 2009 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) indicates that the estimated incidence of E. coli O157:H7 infections did not change significantly when compared with the preceding 3 years. In fact, the percentage of ground beef samples yielding E. coli O157:H7 actually doubled in 2008 compared to 2007. What’s more, none of the targets established by the federal government in its food safety initiative, Healthy People 2010 were met.
To contact attorney Fred Pritzker, please call 1-888-377-8900 or submit our contact form for Fred’s review.
