Food Safety Working Group May Lead to Increased Detection of Food-Borne Illness Outbreaks
Last month, the Obama administration announced the launch of its new website, www.foodsafetyworkinggroup.gov, in the wake of the salmonella outbreak associated with products containing peanuts distributed by the Peanut Corporation of America. The new website tracks the efforts of the administration’s efforts to increase detection and awareness of food-borne illnesses causing personal injury in Tennessee and across the United States.
Some recommendations from the May 13, 2009, listening session include increasing funding for local monitoring of food-borne illnesses, integrating the FDA’s and USDA’s food safety efforts, revamping the FDA’s mandatory recall authority, increasing enforcement against retailers, and implementing more aggressive consumer warnings.
The administration’s new efforts may likely lead to greater legal exposure for food sellers. In food products liability cases, for example, it is very difficult to link a food-borne illness to the food that was consumed. With bolder initiatives, such as implementing technologies that can improve sampling of food products for microorganisms, it may be easier to identify the disease-causing food and detect more outbreaks of food-borne pathogens.
In fact, according to food products liability attorney Jim Neale, “When, despite the best efforts of all concerned, outbreaks do occur, improved surveillance allows them to be caught and, most often, quickly tracked to the source.” And, according to a food liability law blog, the infusion of federal money will likely accelerate state’s health departments’ rates of detection.
If you believe that a prolonged illness or trip to the hospital was caused by something you ate, you may have a Tennessee products liability cause of action against the food manufacturer, distributor, seller, or restaurant. Let us hear your side of the story, call Baker Associates at 866-853-2888.
