Today, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) once again highlighted what food safety advocates, public health organizations, and industry experts have known for years: the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must take immediate, “additional actions” to strengthen its oversight of meat and poultry products. Despite federal food safety being on
Continue Reading The Litigated Dish: GAO Urges USDA to Strengthen Meat and Poultry Oversight
— OPINION —
Believe it or not, many food companies find it cheaper to pay millions of dollars to “resolve” foodborne illness outbreaks and product recalls after they occur than to overhaul their food safety systems to prevent them in the first place.
And while this may seem like a
Continue Reading The Litigated Dish: Pay now or pay later
In typical lawyer fashion, the answer is “it depends.” The consequences for a company involved in a foodborne illness outbreak can vary significantly based on the circumstances surrounding the incident.
If a company demonstrates negligence — such as failing to follow proper food safety protocols — it risks being named
Continue Reading The Litigated Dish: What is the worst case scenario for a company involved in a foodborne illness outbreak?
Welcome back to my series on food safety and litigation. Earlier this year, I addressed some of the most frequently asked food safety questions online, covering topics like incubation periods for foodborne infections and the most alarming recent foodborne illness outbreaks. This time, I’m shifting gears to focus on
Continue Reading The Litigated Dish: A layperson’s guide to class action settlements
— COMMENTARY —
I think I’ll talk about Salmonella in my next few posts. Wondering why? Well, I recently discovered that the search volume — or the number of monthly searches — for “Salmonella” is nine times greater than that of “foodborne illness.” The more you know.
Of the 165,000
Continue Reading The Litigated Dish: Incubation periods for foodborne infections
— COMMENTARY —
Ok, I understand that discussing the potential lethality of foodborne illnesses is not the most uplifting topic, but it is a crucial aspect of food safety that often ranks high among the Internet’s frequently asked questions. My responsibility is to provide informative answers, even if they aren’t
Continue Reading The Litigated Dish:Can foodborne illnesses cause death?
— COMMENTARY —
Three weeks ago, I introduced my column, “The Litigated Dish,” to answer the internet’s most frequently asked food safety questions. One particularly popular question, according to AnswerThePublic.com (a website that tracks the top Google searches), is “What are the symptoms of food poisoning?”
Much like my answer
Continue Reading The Litigated Dish: What is food poisoning?
— OPINION —
If you recall, two weeks ago, I launched my column, “The Litigated Dish,” with the goal of addressing the Internet’s most frequently asked food safety questions. I kind of veered off topic last week when I discussed the most startling recent foodborne illness outbreaks, but I’m
Continue Reading The Litigated Dish: The who, what and how of foodborne pathogens
— OPINION —
During my time at Marler Clark, I have had the chance to witness and work on some of the most tragic and profoundly disturbing foodborne illness outbreaks our firm has encountered.
Here are a few of the recent, particularly alarming outbreaks—some of which I had extensive
Continue Reading The Litigated Dish: Recounting the most startling recent foodborne illness outbreaks
— OPINION —
One of my New Year’s resolutions — I call it my “professional growth resolution” — is to start writing columns in 2024. I hope this will drive more traffic to my law firm’s many existing websites and blogs — we even have this newspaper: Food Safety News.
Continue Reading The Litigated Dish: Top foodborne pathogens