• Inspections are just “snapshots in time;” what happens on just one day may or may not be indicative of restaurant cleanliness throughout the course of a year
• With so much riding on a sanitation score, the relationship between inspector and restaurant will become contentious and lead to much more administrative action
• Posting restaurant scores is punitive; it’s better to encourage (one inspector from a small town said their practice is to publicize good scores)
• Many low risk violations may lower a score even though there is no real threat to the public.

My reaction to the inspector’s comments is that those concerns can be address in a uniform and fair grading system. And the system can be fine-tuned over time. Overall, the public’s right to know trumps any perceived unfairness to restaurants. Transparency is rarely a bad thing.

The Honolulu, Hawaii E. coli outbreak associated with Peppa’s Korean BBQ may be related to food handling violations that closed the restaurant down yesterday.  According to the Honolulu Advisor:

Health officials said the department confirmed that at least four of the seven actually ate at the Ke’eaumoku-area fast-food establishment between March 2 and March 23, when the bacterial infections occurred. . . .

“We don’t often get clusters of cases like this,” said Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo.

After it was confirmed that some of those sickened by E. coli 0157:H7 had eaten at Peppa’s, state Sanitation Branch inspectors were dispatched to the restaurant, where they observed food-handling violations, Okubo said.

Those violations, coupled with confirmation of the Peppa’s connection, caused inspectors to issue a “notice of permit suspension” and a cease-and-desist order against the restaurant at about 10 a.m. yesterday, Okubo said.

Our law firm is investigating this E. coli outbreak associated with Peppa’s Korean BBQ.  To contact an E. coli lawyer at Pritzker Olsen, please call 1-888-377-8900 (TOLL FREE), email Attorney Fred Pritzker or submit our online form for a free consultation.

Keywords: E. coli, Peppa’s Korean BBQ, lawsuit, Honolulu E. coli, lawyer, attorney, Peppa’s Korean Barbecue, hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), thrombotic thrombocytopenic pupura (TTP), child E. coli, restaurant liability.

According to the health department, the Honolulu-area E. coli victims were diagnosed from March 2 -23.  The dates of diagnosis suggest that the source of the E. coli is meat that was purchased by the restaurant prior to March 2 and frozen for later use.  Freezing temperatures do not kill E. coli bacteria.  Our guess is that the cases of reported (emphasis here on reported) illness are low because the restaurant used inconsistent cooking processes that led to some meat not being cooked long enough or hot enough to kill the E. coli bacteria.

If our hypothesis is correct (and this is a hypothesis because the investigation is ongoing), several parties could be liable (legally responsible), including Peppa’s Korean BBQ, the supplier of the meat, the processor of the meat and the slaughterhouse.

When our law firm is hired to represent the victim of an E. coli outbreak, we immediately investigate and take all measures necessary to preserve evidence.  To contact the E. coli lawyers at Pritzker Olsen, call 1-888-377-8900 (TOLL FREE), email Attorney Fred Pritzker or submit our online form for a free consulation.

Keywords: Honolulu E. coli, lawyer, lawsuit, Peppa’s Korean BBQ, ecoli outbreak, hemolytic uremic syndrome, uremia, thrombocytopenia, diarrhea, ate at Peppas Barbacue, E. coli O157:H7.



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,” Pritzker said. “Restaurant chains and food safety officials need to understand that diners have a right to know where and how they became sick.”

Map image from CDC.

Firm Founder and President Fred Pritzker also called on the Oklahoma company to identify which restaurants received steaks potentially contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 that were packaged in October and shipped to restaurants nationwide. The National Steak and Poultry recall covers 248,000 pounds of beef products and at least one large national chain is believed to be a recipient of some of those steaks. The restaurants, too, should identify themselves.

The food safety team at Pritzker Olsen believes the public deserves to know all restaurant locations affected by the recall. The USDA regularly publishes a retail distribution list for all high-risk E. coli recalls, but the National Steak and Poultry outbreak is still active and there is no official listing of where the potentially contaminated steaks were delivered.

A wide variety of National Steak and Poultry steaks currently are associated with a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Washington and the investigation is continuing. Several state health departments and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are involved. Health officials have not yet said how many individuals in each state have been sickened in this steak E. coli outbreak.

These health officials are advising people who have signs or symptoms of E. coli poisoning to contact a physician. E. coli O157:H7 causes extremely painful and often bloody diarrhea, which can be followed by the onset of life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) (the leading cause of kidney failure in children) or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP).

This outbreak could have been prevented. For legal information or to assist Pritzker Olsen with its ongoing investigation, contact our firm at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete our contact and information form on the side of this web page. An E. coli lawyer will provide you with a free case consultation. We are one of the few law firms in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation and we have recovered tens of millions for our clients while also actively supporting many measures to prevent the spread of these diseases.

Click here to see the full list of steak sizes and varieties involved  in the National Steak and Poultry recall.

The danger of this restaurant steak E. coli outbreak is that many customers like their steak cooked rare or medium rare. Those choices are safe when the steak is intact and unprocessed. But studies have shown that mechanical tenderizing of steak with blades and needles pushes surface E. coli into the meat, where it can be insulated from flames and heat that normally kill the pathogens.

This outbreak should teach the meat and restaurant industries to label tenderized, non-intact steaks as dangerous and inform all customers of the risk of undercooking these cuts of beef. The needle-tenderized and injected steaks should be handled more like ground beef, which is required to be cooked to 160 degrees throughout to kill E. coli O157:H7. This human pathogen can cause life-long damage and health consequences in a significant subset of patients.