Three months have passed since Via Christi St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, Kansas, stopped serving all types of Blue Bell ice cream at the direction of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). The step coincided with a major breakthrough in a festering outbreak of listeriosis that Kansas tied to Blue Bell creameries in … Read more
Attorney Fred Pritzker, who is representing people sickened in the Blue Bell ice cream Listeria outbreak, discusses the FDA inspection reports about the company’s facility. Since ice cream is a ready-to-eat food with no consumer “kill step” of cooking, any finding of Listeria monocytogenes bacteria in the plant is a serious issue. Listeria bacteria was … Read more
U.S. Senators urge full funding of the Food Safety Modernization Act after the deadly Blue Bell Listeria monocytogenes outbreak and the recall of potentially contaminated pasta salad at Hy-Vee stores across the Midwest. FSMA has been underfunded by less than half the amount it needs for full implementation since it was signed into law four … Read more
The Listeria monocytogenes outbreak linked to commercially prepared caramel apples (and some plain apples) last fall was a scary time. People don’t usually think of something as innocuous as a caramel apple as being a vehicle for pathogenic bacteria. But fruits and vegetables are often contaminated. In this particular outbreak, at least 35 people in … Read more
The Public Health Agency of Canada is reporting that two people are sick with listeriosis in Canada with the same genetic fingerprint as seen in the Listeria monocytogenes outbreak in the U.S. that is linked to commercially produced caramel apples. The outbreak in the United States has sickened at least 29 people and killed five. Public … Read more
The recent outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes linked to commercially prepared, prepackaged caramel apples in the U.S. may seem surprising. After all, caramel apples are hardly a food one thinks of in relation to food poisoning. But in the past two years, there have been a few recalls of apples products for this bacteria, so the … Read more
U.S. food safety and health agencies are continuing to expand the use of whole genome sequencing (WGS) to detect outbreaks of life-threatening foodborne illness, especially clusters of infection from Listeria monocytogenes. A 2014 Listeria YouTube video presentation shared recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention depicts how the use of WGS solved a … Read more
Attorney Fred Pritzker and his Bad Bug Law Team® are investigating the Listeria outbreak linked to caramel apples that has so far has sickened 28 people in 10 states: Arizona (4), California (1), Minnesota (4), Missouri (5), New Mexico (5), North Carolina (1), Texas (4), Utah (1), Washington (1), and Wisconsin (2). “At this stage of … Read more
The current Listeria monocytogenes outbreak linked to commercially prepared, prepackaged caramel apples is worrying. Twenty-eight people have been sickened and five have died so far in this multi-state outbreak. Caramel apples are not a food one usually associates with foodborne illness. But all raw produce can be contaminated with pathogenic bacteria. Almost all farm fields … Read more
A Listeria outbreak linked to soft cheeses sold under the brand names Oasis, Lacteos Santa Martha and Hondu Crema has ended after sickening five people in four states, one of whom died, according to a final report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). There was one illness reported in each of … Read more