--- title: "Two Women Hospitalized With E. coli O157:H7 to Sue Trader Joe’s Over Tarragon Chicken Salad Wraps; Complaint Names the Product and the Retailer That FDA and USDA Have Not" date: 2026-10-11T09:02:00-07:00 author: Bill Marler canonical_url: "https://marlerclark.com/news_events/two-women-hospitalized-with-e-coli-o157h7-sue-trader-joes-over-tarragon-chicken-salad-wraps-complaint-names-the-product-and-the-retailer-that-fda-and-usda-have-not" section: News --- [All News](/news_events) / [Press Releases](https://marlerclark.com/news_events/press-releases) / # Two Women Hospitalized With E. coli O157:H7 to Sue Trader Joe’s Over Tarragon Chicken Salad Wraps; Complaint Names the Product and the Retailer That FDA and USDA Have Not LOS ANGELES — October 9, 2026 — Gayle Gottlieb of Pembroke, North Carolina, and Meaghan Egan Bright of Somerville, Massachusetts, sued Trader Joe’s Company today in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleging that Tarragon Chicken Salad Wraps they bought at Trader Joe’s stores in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Allston, Massachusetts, in late August were contaminated with *E. coli* O157:H7. Both women were hospitalized, both infections were confirmed by laboratory testing, and both were told by their health departments that they are part of the multistate outbreak the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are investigating together. On October 7, FDA’s [outbreak investigation table](https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/investigations-foodborne-illness-outbreaks) reported 38 illnesses and, for the first time, identified the vehicle as ready-to-eat multi-ingredient chicken wraps. FDA said the USDA-regulated wraps were “proactively removed from the market before the link to the outbreak was confirmed” and are past their shelf life. There has been no public health alert, and neither agency has named the manufacturer, the brand, the retailer or the states where people got sick. Ms. Gottlieb bought three of the wraps at a Trader Joe’s store in Myrtle Beach on August 23 and ate the first on August 27. Two days later she was hunched over with abdominal cramping; by August 30 her diarrhea was bloody and she was in the emergency department at UNC Southeastern Hospital in Lumberton, North Carolina, where a stool sample tested positive for Shiga toxin-producing *E. coli* O157. Discharged on August 31, she returned that night, severely dehydrated, and was taken by ambulance to Scotland Memorial Hospital in Laurinburg, where she was admitted on September 2. The North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health confirmed *E. coli* O157 and Shiga toxin 2. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services classified her as a confirmed case in a multistate outbreak, assigned her illness CDC cluster code 2609MLEXH-2, and recorded the source of her illness as a “wrap from Trader Joe’s.” Ms. Bright bought a Tarragon Chicken Salad Wrap at a Trader Joe’s store in Allston on August 24 and ate it that day. She fell ill on August 27, and by August 30 she was passing blood and went to Cambridge Health Alliance, which sent her home. When the vomiting and bloody diarrhea did not stop, she called an ambulance and was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was hospitalized from August 31 through September 6 with pain she describes as the worst she has ever experienced. Her stool tested positive for Shiga toxin-producing *E. coli*, and her physicians warned her she was at risk for hemolytic uremic syndrome, the kidney-failure complication of the infection. The Somerville Board of Health and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health told her that she was part of the outbreak. Two people who have never met bought the same wrap at Trader Joe’s stores in South Carolina and Massachusetts a day apart, and within a week both were in an emergency room passing blood. Both have laboratory-confirmed Shiga toxin-producing *E. coli*. Both were told by their health departments that they are part of this outbreak. North Carolina’s public-health record lists the source of Ms. Gottlieb’s illness as a wrap from Trader Joe’s. The public-health record connects the product to the illness. The complaint follows that evidence. **— Ilana Korchia, attorney, Marler Clark** Ms. Bright spent a week at Massachusetts General Hospital in the worst pain of her life, keeping her family’s visits short because she was afraid of infecting them. Ms. Gottlieb went to the emergency room twice in two days and left the second time in an ambulance. Both are working adults who bought a sealed, ready-to-eat meal from a national grocery chain, trusting it was safe to eat. They did nothing wrong. Now, the food they once trusted is food they’re afraid to eat. **— Ilana Korchia** The complaint pleads strict product liability, negligence, negligence *per se* and breach of implied warranty, and demands a jury trial. It alleges that two consumers in different states who independently bought and ate the same named product in the same week, and then developed laboratory-confirmed infections with the outbreak pathogen within its incubation period, present “powerful evidence of a common-source exposure.” The plaintiffs are represented by Frederic L. Gordon of Pasadena, California, and by William D. Marler and [Ilana Korchia](https://marlerclark.com/lawyers/ilana-korchia) of Marler Clark, Inc., PS, The Food Safety Law Firm, who will appear *pro hac vice*. Ms. Korchia holds a degree in food science and worked in public affairs at FDA before she became a lawyer. Trader Joe’s knows who made these wraps, what went into them, which stores received them and when they came off the shelves. None of that is in the public record. Discovery will put it there. **— Ilana Korchia** Marler Clark has been here before. [In 2013](https://marlerclark.com/news_events/trader-joes-e-coli-outbreak), when *E. coli* O157:H7 in ready-to-eat salads and sandwich wraps made by Glass Onion Catering and sold at Trader Joe’s sickened 33 people in four states, the manufacturer and the retailer were named publicly and about 181,620 pounds of product were recalled while the outbreak was still being counted. This time, the only public document connecting the outbreak to a brand and a store is the complaint filed today by two of the people it made sick. Thirty-eight people are sick, and all the federal government has told them is a category: ready-to-eat chicken wraps. FDA and USDA know the manufacturer, the brand and the stores. They have said none of it, because the wraps were pulled before the link was confirmed and are now past their shelf life. That protects the next customer. It does nothing for the people already sick, or for the ones who will be counted over the next month, who need to be able to tell an emergency room exactly what they ate. **— William D. Marler, managing partner, Marler Clark** Our clients learned where their illnesses came from because a health department interviewer asked them what they ate. The public is learning it today from a federal complaint. In 2013 the government named the manufacturer and the retailer and recalled the product while people were still getting sick. Thirteen years later the agencies have the same kind of information and have decided the public does not need it. No recall, no name. No recall, no store list. A company that pulls a product before the government finishes connecting the dots is treated better than one that waits for the recall. What is missing is not authority. It is a rule that requires the agencies to say what they know. **— William D. Marler** Mr. Marler has drafted [two citizen petitions to FDA](https://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/thirty-eight-people-are-sick-from-chicken-wraps-nobody-will-name-the-wraps-were-proactively-removed-so-there-is-no-recall-no-store-list-and-no-alert-this-outbreak-fell-through-bo/) that address the two gaps this outbreak fell through. The first asks FDA to establish by rule that the identity of a firm implicated in an outbreak is not confidential commercial information, and to publish the suspect food, the states, the hospitalizations and the cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome while an investigation is open. The second asks FDA to publish the stores and institutions that received a recalled food, as USDA has done by rule since 2008, to classify every recall within ten days, and to treat the removal of an outbreak-implicated food as a recall whether the company calls it a recall, a market withdrawal or a proactive removal. Both drafts are being circulated for comment before filing. I am circulating both petitions for comment before I file them, and I would welcome the food industry’s input. But FDA does not need my petitions to act. The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act already allows it to report the results of its investigations. It could name these wraps today. **— William D. Marler** Anyone who ate a ready-to-eat chicken wrap in late August or September and developed diarrhea, especially bloody diarrhea, should see a physician and ask for a stool test; antibiotics and anti-diarrheal medications can increase the risk of hemolytic uremic syndrome in *E. coli* O157:H7 infections. A copy of the complaint is available on request. **About Marler Clark** [Marler Clark, Inc., PS](https://marlerclark.com/), The Food Safety Law Firm, is the nation’s leading law firm representing victims of foodborne illness. Founded by Bill Marler in the wake of the 1993 Jack in the Box *E. coli* outbreak, the firm has represented thousands of individuals in *E. coli*, *Salmonella*, *Listeria*, *Campylobacter*, *Cyclospora*, hepatitis A and norovirus outbreaks and has recovered more than $850 million on their behalf. The firm’s work is the subject of the book and the Emmy Award-winning Netflix documentary *Poisoned*. Marler Clark also publishes [Food Safety News](https://www.foodsafetynews.com/). The firm is based on Bainbridge Island, Washington. **Media Contact** William D. Marler, Managing Partner Marler Clark, Inc., PS — 180 Olympic Drive S.E., Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 1-800-884-9840 • (206) 346-1888 • bmarler@marlerclark.com Ilana Korchia, Attorney • (206) 407-2203 • ikorchia@marlerclark.com \# # # ### Other E. coli Lawsuits [Sierra Nevada Cheese Company Graziers Raw Milk Cheese E. coli Outbreak Lawsuits](https://marlerclark.com/sierra-nevada-cheese-company-graziers-raw-milk-cheese-e-coli-outbreak-lawsuits) [55 People, in 15 States, Sickened in E.coli and Salmonella Outbreak Tied to Sprouts - Wisconsin and Minnesota Hit Hard](https://marlerclark.com/minnesota-and-wisconsin-e-coli-and-salmonella-outbreak-tied-to-sprouts) [Dungeness Valley Creamery Raw Milk E. coli Outbreak Lawsuits](https://marlerclark.com/china-buffet-linked-to-listeria-outbreak-sickening-five-in-tampa) [E. coli Sickens 17 from Publix GreenWise and Walmart Great Value Frozen Berries](https://marlerclark.com/e-coli-sickens-12-from-publix-blueberries) [Kebab Shop E. coli Outbreak 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The team at Marler Clark is here to answer all your questions. Find out if you’re eligible for a lawsuit, what questions to ask your doctor, and more. [ Get a free consultation ](https://marlerclark.com/contact) ##### Related Resources ###### [E. coli Food Poisoning](https://marlerclark.com/foodborne-illnesses/e-coli/e-coli-food-poisoning) What is E. coli and how does it cause food poisoning? Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a highly studied, common species of bacteria that belongs to the family Enterobacteriaceae, so... ###### [E. coli O157:H7](https://marlerclark.com/foodborne-illnesses/e-coli/e-coli-o157h7) E. coli O157:H7 is a foodborne pathogen that causes food poisoning. E. coli O157:H7 is the most commonly identified and the most notorious Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) serotype in... ###### [Non-O157 STEC](https://marlerclark.com/foodborne-illnesses/e-coli/non-o157-stec) Non-O157 Shiga Toxin-Producing E. coli can also cause food poisoning. 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