Food & Beverage Litigation & Regulatory Update

Tag: pathogen

  • USDA Finalizes Salmonella and Campylobacter Standards for Poultry

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has finalized standards that seek to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter in ground chicken and turkey products, as well as raw chicken breasts, legs and wings. Part of the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s (FSIS’) effort to revamp the poultry inspection system, the new rules require routine sampling throughout the…

  • Cheese Company Pleads Guilty to Food Adulteration Charge

    A Delaware cheese company and two individual defendants have pled guilty to a misdemeanor violation of the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act for distributing adulterated ricotta, queso fresco and fresh cheese curds in several neighboring states. U.S. v. Roos Foods, Inc., No. 16-0013 (D. Del., information filed January 22, 2016). Roos’ cheese was connected…

  • Chipotle Targeted in Federal Investigations, Shareholder Suit Filed in New York Federal Court

    Chipotle Mexican Grill has reportedly been served with a grand jury subpoena as part of a U.S. Attorney’s Office and Food and Drug Administration criminal investigation into a California norovirus outbreak in August 2015 that sickened more than 200 people. The company’s fare was also linked to a norovirus outbreak in Massachusetts in December 2015.…

  • D.C. Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Poultry Inspection System Challenge

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of Food & Water Watch’s challenge to the New Poultry Inspection System (NPIS). Food & Water Watch, Inc. v. Vilsack, No. 15-5037 (D.C., order entered December 22, 2015). The organization argued that the NPIS did not comply with the Poultry…

  • European, U.S. Courts Split on Compensation for False Outbreak Identifications

    A German court has reportedly ordered the city of Hamburg to compensate a Spanish vegetable grower falsely linked to a 2011 E. coli outbreak that sickened more than 4,000 people in 16 countries. Vegetable cooperative Frunet asserted that it suffered €2.3 million in damages as a result of its incorrect identification as the source of…

  • CDC Updates Foodborne Disease Outbreak Database

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched a newly interactive iteration of its Foodborne Outbreak Online Database Tool. The resource allows users to search data by year, state, location of food preparation, food and ingredient, and implicated germ. The information captured in the database comes from CDC’s Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System,…

  • Peanut Corp. Managers Sentenced to Prison

    One week after the sentencing of three Peanut Corp. of America (PCA) executives, two managers have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a Salmonella outbreak linked to nine deaths and hundreds of illnesses. Samuel Lightsey and Daniel Kilgore, former operations managers at PCA’s Blakely, Georgia, plant, were sentenced to three years and six…

  • USDA Links Virus That Killed Millions of Pigs to Reusable Feed Bags

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has linked a 2013-2014 outbreak of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) that killed more than 7 million piglets to Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBCs), the reusable tote bags used to transport and store pig feed. According to an APHIS report, which seeks…