The Salinas product supplier Taylor Fresh Foods faces nine victims of an E epidemic. Coli in November which was not disclosed to the public.
The epidemic – who killed a person and badly away from 88 others – was linked to the Roman lettuce and lasted at least 15 states, including Missouri and Indiana.
Federal investigators retraced the cases to a single producer, but the food and the Drug Administration did not disclose the name.
The details of the investigation were only revealed after several affected parties, including the parents of a victim of 10 years earlier this month, filed proceedings alleging Taylor Fresh Foods and Taylor Farms California – called “Taylor farms” in court documents – created the “defective and unreasonably dangerous” foods.
Taylor Farms in a declaration Thursday at Times denied that it was the source of the epidemic of E. Coli and said that he “envisages any legal action to defend himself”.
“We are carrying out in -depth gross and finished product tests on all our products and there was no proof of contamination,” said the supplier, adding that his products were treated using washing systems checked by the USDA.
In a federal trial against Taylor Fresh Foods and Taylor Farms, California deposited last week, the residents of Indiana, Amber and Chris George, alleged that their 9 -year -old son, Colton George, became seriously ill and was hospitalized after eating the Roman lettue which would have been provided by the producer of California.
It was then diagnosed with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a potentially fatal renal condition, from an E strain. Coli who was confirmed by genetic tests to correspond to other cases in the epidemic.
The boy’s condition forced him to undergo dialysis for two weeks – including at his 10th anniversary, the complaint said.
The Georges demanded that Taylor Farms pay their son’s medical invoices among other damages, including for “loss of enjoyment of life” and “emotional distress”.
Taylor Farms’ products were previously linked to a distinct E epidemic. Coli in October. The supplier voluntarily recalled onion products on fault, and the FDA warned the public on the contaminated yellow onions, which were served on the McDonald’s burgers.
This time, the FDA said: “There was no public communication linked to this epidemic” because the contaminated lettuce was no longer sold when its distributor was identified, according to an internal report obtained by NBC.
The FDA also declared in a press release to NBC that it names companies only “when there is enough evidence linking an epidemic to a company and that there is usable advice for consumers, as long as the company is not legally prohibited.”
“As the investigators had confirmed the probable source, the epidemic had already ended and there was no procreable advice for consumers,” said the agency.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in a letter in the previous month that the epidemic was over.
The FDA and CDC representatives did not respond to requests for comments.
Bill Marler, the lawyer representing the nine victims pursuing the farms of Taylor, said that he had discovered many evidence pointing to the supplier as the source of the epidemic. Marler said that he had obtained invoices from a caterer from St. Louis listing Taylor Farms as a seller.
“Everything could be very eliminated if the FDA did what they do normally, which names the entity when they nailed it to an entity, which they do,” said Marler.
Marler said he was particularly disrupted by the FDA’s decision not to make this epidemic or its source known because the specific strain of E. Coli who caused it – E. coli O157: H7 – was linked to several previous epidemics.
“This tells you that there is a kind of systemic problem in the growing environment,” said the lawyer.
“If you ignore it in a way and say:” Well, the epidemic is over, we have nothing to say “, he said,” what incentive is there for companies to stop growing there? “
Jerold Mande, a Nutrition Auxiliary Professor at the Harvard Th Chan School of Public Health and former main advisor to the FDA Commissioner, said that even if a contaminated product is out of traffic when it is identified, consumers still have the right to know that contamination has occurred.
“The file of a business in the past is indicative of what people could expect in the future as well, and therefore consumers should have this information,” said Mande, adding that what they are doing with this information depends on them.
Mande said that the FDA did not excel historically to transparency, and it fears that the recent cuts to the agency’s communication staff aggravate things.
“The current administration, which has repeatedly stressed on radical transparency, should certainly be more to inform consumers what is happening in these cases,” he said.
Darin Detwiler, an expert in food security and associate teaching teacher at the College of Professional Studies of Northeastern University, said that he was crucial not only for consumers but also in other companies to know when contamination occurs.
Under the law on the modernization of food security, food installations must have food security plans describing how they will fight against the risks of contamination or other food security risks. Detwiler said that these plans generally include models of likelihood, which measure the probability of a danger that occurs with the severity of its potential consequences.
“If a company is supposed to develop a plans of plausibility, and that it does not know that their competitors – their goods, their industry – have these problems, how are they supposed to adequately capture this idea of likelihood and gravity and then act?” Detwiler said.
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