According to FDA's form 483, inspectors found Listeria monocytogenes bacteria at the Bidart Brothers packing house. A multistate outbreak of Listeria was linked to commercially produced caramel apples made from that company's produce. The report, based on inspections conducted on December 23, 24, and 29 in 2014 and on January 6, 2015 states "during an inspection of your firm we observed food that has been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have been contaminated with filthy, or whereby it may have been rendered injurious to health." The inspectors were officials from the FDA and the California Department of Public Health. FDA inspectors collected 110 environmental swabs from food and non-food contact surfaces in the packaging area, common cold … [Read more...]
Sequencing the Deadly Caramel Apple Listeria Outbreak
Starting in October 2014 when the caramel apple Listeria outbreak was claiming its first victims, public health officials in states like Minnesota, Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico and Texas were about to receive the first indications of a lethal food poisoning problem from an unlikely source. It took two months to coalesce, but state reporting of individual cases of listeriosis and federal monitoring of those reports with a system of genetic fingerprinting tied the cases together: pre-packaged, commercially produced caramel apples were making people deathly ill and sending them to the hospital. Listeria lawsuit court records, state health agency documents, outbreak reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and an investigation summary filed by the Food and Drug … [Read more...]
Caramel Apple Lawsuit Filed Against Walmart, Bidart
Walmart and Bidart Brothers Apple Packing are named as defendants in a lawsuit filed on behalf of a California woman who has spent more than a month in the hospital after contracting listeriosis from a caramel apple. The suit was filed January 13 in Superior Court in Sacramento. According to the complaint, Darlene Vouri and her husband Francis Vouri purchased caramel apples on October 14, 2014 from the Wal–Mart located at 5454 Crossings Drive in Rocklin, Calif. Within a few days of eating them, Darlene began to experince symptoms of a Listeria infection, including headache, neck pain, fatigue, chills, and muscle aches and weakness. Over the course of the next two weeks, Mrs. Vouri went to the doctor several times as her condition deteriorated. On November 8, she collapsed and was … [Read more...]