FDA Releases Inspection Report on Egg Farms
A food poisoning lawsuit was filed today in the enormous egg recall and Salmonella outbreak tied to two Iowa egg farms. The lawsuit was filed against Quality Egg (doing business as Wright County Egg) in the Northern District Court of Iowa, Western Division just as the FDA released its report on Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms. Food safety law firm Marler Clark and Wandro, Baer, and McCarthy filed the suit on behalf of a woman sickened in the outbreak.
The plaintiff, a California mother of two young children, ate a custard dessert at a graduation banquet in May 2010. A few days later, she began to suffer from severe gastrointestinal symptoms including abdominal cramps and diarrhea. Her symptoms continued to worsen, and she was admitted to the hospital, where she remained for 4 days. She was released but had to be readmitted at the end of June for another 5 days. While hospitalized, she tested positive for the outbreak strain of Salmonella enteritidis. The California Department of Health confirmed that the eggs used to make the dessert she consumed came from Wright County Egg.
“The FDA report on these farms details appalling conditions,” said food safety attorney Bill Marler. “It’s almost a given that these kind of unhygienic conditions would produce contamination and illness. I hoped I had seen the last of this kind of disregard for public safety after the peanut butter outbreak, but this manages to be even worse.”
In August 2010, Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms together recalled 550,000,000 eggs due to contamination with Salmonella. To date, 2,403 illnesses have been confirmed in Alaska, California, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin.