The New York Times has a report on the inability of corporations that manufacture processed foods, to guarantee the safety of their products. In many cases, companies are simply passing on the responsibility of guaranteeing the safety of frozen pies or pizza on the consumers themselves.

In 2007, 15,000 people fell sick from salmonella poisoning that was traced to frozen Banquet pot pies manufactured by ConAgra foods. Federal inspectors struggled to trace the source of salmonella contamination. They inspected the turkey and vegetables in the pies, looking for the culprit pathogens. The efforts by the company to determine the source of contamination in the pies were a failure. So, the company decided to pass on the responsibility for the safety of the pies right onto the customers. The Banquets pot pies now come with a set of instructions complete with a four step diagram on the packaging that asks the consumer to use a food thermometer to measure the internal temperature of the pie before eating it. So, consumers have to use a thermometer to determine that the internal temperature of the pie is about 165 degrees F to ensure that all pathogens are eliminated.

According to the New York Times, the complex supply mechanisms that are involved in sourcing produce, poultry, and meats for use in processed foods mean that manufacturers like ConAgra find it impossible to trace contamination in their ingredients. In the Banquet pot pies, there were more than 25 ingredients including turkey, carrot, peas, and potatoes. Each ingredient likely comes from different suppliers who in turn, source them from produce growers. Many companies may not even be aware of the suppliers of these ingredients. That means that these companies find it impossible to ensure that suppliers screen their produce for pathogens.

It’s not just ConAgra that has been found lacking in guaranteeing the safety of foods. Nestle and the Blackstone group that owns the Swanson and Hungry Man brands admit that they can’t guarantee the safety of processed foods. General Mills in 2007 was forced to recall about 5 million frozen pizzas after these pizzas were linked to E coli poisoning. The company now advises customers to avoid heating pizzas in microwave ovens and use conventional ovens instead.

However, these food safety instructions that come with processed foods are not always detailed enough or clear enough. According to the report, some companies don’t list specific and clear instructions on the packaging. Other products may come with safety instructions that are easy to miss - they come in tiny print on the box in abbreviated guidelines. A Hungry Man Pot Pie by Blackstone instructs customers to ensure the internal temperature of the pie is about 110 lesser than the limit imposed by the government for elimination of pathogens.

The Clinton administration had set up the non-profit Partnership for Food Safety Education, which works to spread awareness about food safety. However, lack of resources - the group works with a two-person staff and a princely annual budget of $300,000 – have impeded the groups’ efforts.

Every year, there are 76 million cases of food-borne illnesses and a vast majority of these go unreported. With a large number of food contamination crises in recent months, it’s clear that the FDA needs to get involved in holding companies accountable for food safety.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of food poisoning. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

Health safety inspectors have located the source of an e coli food poisoning that was responsible for closing down a Boy Scout camp in Goshen, Virginia this week. S&S Foods LLC a company based in Azusa, California is recalling 154,000 pounds of frozen ground beef, the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has said. According to the agency, the ground beef is likely to contain the e coli virus.

The scout camp at Goshen, Virginia began late last month, and was playing host to more than 1,000 scouts and scout leaders. At least 17 campers are reported to have contracted the food poisoning infection, and of these 14 have been ill enough to warrant hospitalization. Health experts trying to locate the source of the food poisoning first tested the available ground water in the area, and later, focused on the health practices at the camp itself. The staff was surveyed about their hygiene and food preparation practices. The officials looked at the ground beef products that were being used at the camp. Samples of the e coli virus in the ground beef found at the camp was similar to the one found in samples received from sick people at the camp. Then the experts turned their attention to the source of the e coli infection – was it present in the ground beef before it landed in Goshen? It looks like they found their answer right here in California.

Now, the company that was responsible for distributing the foods, S&S Foods has recalled 30 pound cases of ground beef that was meant for institutional use.

E Coli raises its ugly head every year at regular intervals in the country. The virus can live in meat, and can actually multiply if the meat is stored under inappropriate conditions. Improperly cooked ground beef is not the only source of e coli infection in the US, although it is one of the most common sources of contamination. Other sources include raw or pasteurized milk, and waste contamination. Because the risk of infection is ever present, there is very little that you can do to identify the source of your e coli infection unless you are one of the 20 percent of national cases that are connected to a recognized outbreak.

In the US, beef product recalls are often linked to the presence of the deadly virus in the products. Last year saw some heavy duty recalls of contaminated ground beef, more than 22 million pounds of it, all linked to e coli.

At its worst, e coli can cause hemolytic uremic syndrome, a condition where there is a low blood cell and platelet count, and resulting kidney damage. In kids, this condition can even cause renal failure.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of food poisoning. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

A California company has issued the largest beef recall in US history. The recall is estimated at 143 million pounds of beef, all the beef manufactured in the past two years in fact. Much of the beef at the meat packing plant Westland/Hallmark Meat was meant for schools across the country.

It’s not just the size of the recall that has attracted the attention (the earlier record was 35 million pounds of ground beef recalled in 1999, which now seems like chicken feed compared to this new recall). It’s the level of standards at the plant.

The Humane Society of America in an exposé managed to film sick cows too feeble to get up, being prodded in an attempt to make them stand. Forklifts are seen being used in the video as cows very obviously ill, are forced to stand. A look at the video and you would be forgiven for thinking this was happening in a third world country.

These are far from healthy cows, and the plant had five health inspectors from the Department of Agriculture assigned to it. A Department of Agriculture investigation showed that officials at the company did not alert veterinarians when its cows became too sick to walk. As seen in the video, the cows are being forced to stand up so they can pass safety inspections! What triggered the recall was the fear that these cows showed symptoms of the dreaded mad cow disease. The government has banned these kinds of cows, known as downer cows (those that can’t walk), from the food supply.

The Department of Agriculture on its own can’t issue a recall. It can however withdraw its inspectors from a plant, which they have done in this case. Not a day too early. There doesn’t seem to have been a lot of “inspecting” these inspectors were doing at the plant anyway.

There’s no way of knowing where most of the possibly infected meat ended up. The meat can be traced back to two years ago, and has been distributed through countless distribution networks, and has made its way though to thousands of schools across the country. Some schools immediately lifted beef from the menu, but the worry is that all we can do is wait to see if any possible health effects show up.

The Humane Society president asks the question we all want answered. How could the presence of such downer cows have gone unnoticed day after day in the presence of an USDA oversight system at the plant? What are these inspectors using tax dollars for? How could they have not noticed these very sick and very mistreated cows?

The USDA, of course is showing the same degree of ineptitude that it has in earlier recalls. There’s nothing to worry about, they say, since most of the beef has already been consumed. In other words, nobody’s dead yet from eating the meat, and so we should probably not make too much of a fuss over it.

It’s this lackadaisical approach to food safety that’s disturbing and quite frankly, frightening.

Incidences of e. coli have increased in the past couple of years, last year alone saw 21 e. coli related beef recalls, and experts have no idea why.

Slaughtering animals too sick to stand can’t be helping matters.

If you have suffered adverse effects from recalled food, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury law firm. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.