Food safety advocate and attorney Bill Marler, whose Seattle law firm, Marler Clark, has been contacted by victims of the E. coli outbreak traced to the National Steak and Poultry steak recall that has sickened twenty-one people in California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington, called on National Steak and Poultry to pay the medical bills and lost wages of all individuals.

“We know that twenty-one people became ill, nine were hospitalized–one with Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS)–after eating National Steak and Poultry steak served at Olive Garden, Applebee’s, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Carino’s Italian and 54th Street Grill & Bar,” Marler said.

“The cost of treating victims of E. coli infections can run in the tens of thousands of dollars, or in a severe case, in the hundreds of thousands of dollars or more,” Marler continued. “These families need National Steak and Poultry to do more than promise to cooperate in the investigation into this outbreak. They need to know that National Steak and Poultry intends to fulfill its corporate responsibility by looking out for its customers.”

Marler noted that in other outbreak-situations companies such as Chi-Chi’s, Dole, Jack in the Box, ConAgra, Odwalla, Nestle, and Sheetz advanced medical costs for outbreak victims whose illnesses were traced to their food products.