In May of 2005, public health investigators at the North Dakota Department of Health (DOH) first learned of a Salmonella outbreak among customers who had purchased rotisserie chicken from the Economart in Williston, North Dakota. A group of friends and a family with small children had all become ill with Salmonella infections after eating the chicken; one woman died as a result of her infection.
The North Dakota Department of Health inspected the Williston Economart, and noted low sanitation levels and low hot-holding temperatures, which could have contributed to the Salmonella outbreak. The DOH noted:
The possibility of cross-contamination may exist from deficient sanitation levels that would not be effective in removing salmonella from contact surfaces in between the raw-handling stage and the ready-to-eat stage of chicken preparation. . . . [T]wo of the three holding temperatures taken during the investigation were found to be less than the North Dakota Food Code requirement of 135 degrees F.
The Marler Clark Salmonella attorneys represented the family of the woman who died in a Salmonella claim against Economart. The firm also represented her son-in-law in a claim against Economart. The claims were resolved in mid-2006 at mediation.