The huge Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak linked to Fareway chicken salad is now over after sickening 265 people in 8 states. Ninety-four of those people were hospitalized because they were so ill. One person living in Iowa died. More illnesses could still be reported, if people have this salad frozen in home freezers.
Triple T Specialty Meats produced the salad for the Fareway chain. Fareway stopped selling the salad on February 9, 2018, after the company was notified about illnesses. The Iowa Department of Public health issued a consumer advisory on February 13, 2018, warning that the salad may be contaminated.
On February 21, 2018, Triple T Specialty Meats recalled all of that salad that was produced from January 2, 2018 to February 7, 2018. It was sold from the deli department in containers of various weights in Fareway stores in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Dakota, from January 4, 2018, to February 9, 2018.
The patient case count by state is: Illinois (1), Indiana (1), Iowa (240), Minnesota (4), Mississippi (1), Nebraska (5), South Dakota (3), and Wisconsin (1). Illness started on dates ranging from January 8, 2018, to March 20, 2018. The patient age range is from less than 1 year to 89 years. Ninety-four people were hospitalized.
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with food poisoning, you can contact attorney Fred Pritzker for help by calling 1-888-377-8900 or 612-338-0202.
Attorney Fred Pritzker, who is representing clients in this outbreak, said, “All ready-to-eat products should be safe to eat and not be contaminated with enough bacteira to make someone sick. No one should be ill just because they decided to buy chicken salad from a deli.”
Investigators used the PulseNet system to identify people who were part of this outbreak. DNA fingerprinting performed on salmonella bacteria isolated from patients using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGS) and whole genome sequencing (WGS). Those analyses found that bacteria isolated form patients in this outbreak were closely related genetically.
Investigators in Iowa collected chicken salad from two Fareway grocery stores in Iowa for testing. An outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium was found in both samples. Therefore epidemiologic, laboratory, and traceback evidence indicates that the chicken salad made by Triple T Specialty Meats, sold at Fareway grocery stores was the likely source of this multistate outbreak.
This outbreak could be much larger than the hundreds reported sick. The multiplier for Salmonella outbreaks is 29. That means that investigators multiple the outbreak case count by that number since Salmonella infections so often go unreported to doctors and public health officials. There could be thousands who have been sickened in this outbreak.
And the hospitalization rate in this outbreak was quite high, at 35%. Most Salmonella outbreaks have hospitalization rates of about 20%. The CDC stated that fifteen isolates from ill persons contained genes for resistance to all or some of these antibiotics: amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, ampicillin, cefoxitin, ceftriaxone, gentamicin, streptomycin, sulfamethoxazole, and tetracycline. That may have made some of the infections difficult to treat with the standard medicines used.
A Salmonella infection produces these symptoms: fever, abdominal pains and cramps, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea that can be bloody at times. If you ate Fareway chicken salad and have been ill with these types of symptoms, see your doctor. Even if you recover completely from this illness, you should know that there are long term consequences of a Salmonella infection, including endocarditis, high blood pressure, reactive arthritis, and irritable bowel syndrome.
And check your home freezer. If you have any Fareway chicken salad, even if some has been eaten and no one got sick, throw it out in a sealed bag so that others can’t access it. It’s then important to wash and sanitize the drawers and shelves in your fridge and freezer, as well as countertops, to kill any remaining bacteria. If you don’t remember if you bought the salad within the dates listed above, don’t eat it. Throw it out.
The Minnesota law firm of Pritzker Hageman helps people sickened by contaminated food such as the Faraway chicken salad product protect their legal rights, and get compensation and justice. Our lawyers represent patients and the families of children sickened with bacterial infections in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits against retailers, food producers, food processors, restaurants, schools, and others. Attorney Fred Pritzker recently won a multimillion dollar verdict for a young child who needed brain surgery after a Salmonella infection. Class action lawsuits may not be appropriate for outbreak victims because the cases are so unique.
