Linda Young - AHN Editor
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Several suits against meat packers have been filed by families of people sickened by E. coli-tainted meat, which is now under recall, and has killed two people and sickened 28 others across several states in the Northeast.
Families of two of the children who fell sick have filed separate suits against Brockton, Ma.-based South Shore Meats and Fairbank Farms Inc. of Ashville, NY.
More than a half million pounds of fresh ground meat products from Fairbanks Farms were recalled last week because of the possibility that it was tainted with E. coli.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a statement Tuesday and said, "Health officials in several states who were investigating a cluster of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses, with isolates that match by "DNA fingerprinting" analyses, found that most ill persons had consumed ground beef, with several purchasing the same or similar product from a common retail chain. At least some of the illnesses appear to be associated with products subject to these recalls. A sample from an opened package of ground beef recovered from a patient's home was tested by the Massachusetts Department of Health and yielded an E. coli O157:H7 isolate that matched the patient isolates by DNA analysis."
CDC officials have linked the tainted meat to at least two deaths and 28 people who were sickened in 11 states. The initial recall was for eight states, but some retailers sent meat to other states. All affected packages were marked with "EST. 492" inside the USDA mark of inspection or on the nutrition label.
The United States Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced the recall on Oct. 31, saying that approximately 545,699 pounds of fresh ground beef products might be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.
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