Recent Events in the News

E. Coli and Other Scares Mar December Shopping

Posted on Dec 18, 2011

Several food-related scares have jostled the food and retail industry over the past month. Just this week, Rhee Bros Inc. recalled Assi rice cakes due to undeclared egg. State inspectors in New York found the unmarked packaging, which may potentially harm those allergic to eggs.

Less innocuous is the study published by the CDC, implicating E. coli in 2009's cookie dough illness. 77 people in 30 states fell ill to the bacteria, half of whom were hospitalized that year. The problem, according to the CDC, is that cookie dough manufacturers are not under enough pressure -- regulatory or financial -- to make their raw flour safe for consumption. (This is in contrast to eggs, molasses, and sugar, which are manufactured to kill bacteria.) Meanwhile, consumers enjoy the pastime of eating raw cookie dough while baking. The CDC hopes to change both concurrent behaviors after this study.

Also concerning is the discovery by the CDC last week that a multistate outbreak of E. coli poisoning over the past several months is due to romaine lettuce from a single farm. The outbreak hit 60 individuals in 10 states, and most of the complaints were traced back to Schnucks outlets.

Earlier last month, on November 17th, Ready Pac Food Inc. also recalled its own romaine lettuce after USDA investigators found E. coli in tested products. It is unclear whether the two E. coli-romaine lettuce outbreaks are related.

E. coli is a bacteria that attacks the gastrointestinal system. Most people feel better after a week but some people, especially infants and the elderly, are at risk of hospitalization and sometimes death.

If you would like more information about how medical malpractice and accident cases work in the state of New York, I encourage you to explore my educational website. If you have legal questions, I urge you to pick up the phone and call me at 516-487-8207 or by e-mail at lawmed10@yahoo.com to answer your questions. That's what I do every day. I welcome your call.

Gerry practices law exclusively in the State of New York. Within New York he practices primarily in the following counties: New York, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island, Nassau and Suffolk. Technically, Brooklyn is known as "Kings County," and Manhattan and New York City are known as "New York County." Staten Island is known as "Richmond County." These counties make up the New York metropolitan area.