Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark : Food Poison Blog

The Bellingham Herald reported today on a Campylobacter jejuni outbreak that has been traced to the consumption of raw milk purchased from a Whatcom County, Washington, dairy. 

In December, the Whatcom County Health Department issued a warning to consumers that Campylobacter had been isolated from a sample of milk produced at the Pleasant Valley Dairy in Ferndale.  The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported:

The bacteria were found in a routine testing sample taken Dec. 11, the department said.

Local health departments are reviewing Campylobacter illness reports that may be related to the milk, the news release said. Symptoms of the illness usually occur two to five days after ingestion and generally last for seven to 10 days.

The milk was sold in half-gallon plastic containers at the Pleasant Valley farm store and at Barganica, Community Food Co-op and Terra Organica in Bellingham; Skagit Valley Co-op in Mount Vernon; Arlington Health, Petosa's, Manna Mills, Tru Health and Bob's Corn Patch in Snohomish County; and Spuds in Seattle, the news release said.

Now, health officials are saying that at least five people became ill with Campylobacteriosis, the illness caused by the ingestion of Campylobacter bacteria, after drinking raw milk produced by the Pleasant Valley Dairy.  According to the story in the Herald:

Four Whatcom County residents and one Skagit County resident tested positive for the same campylobacter jejuni strain that was found in a routine sample of raw milk from Pleasant Valley Dairy. The dairy pulled that batch of milk from the shelves and has resumed its distribution of raw milk.

The dairy has changed its testing procedures to reduce the risk of releasing contaminated milk, the health department said.

Outbreaks traced to the consumption of raw milk are not all that uncommon.  The International Food Safety Network has posted a list of outbreaks on its website.

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Two California raw milk dairies filed a lawsuit yesterday against the state of California Department of Agriculture in an effort to stop AB1735 from going into effect.  The law, which was passed by the California legislature, will require raw milk producers to reduce the number of coliform bacteria in bottled raw milk to 10 per milliliter. 

In an article for the San Francisco Chronicle, Carol Ness wrote about the new law and the debate it has caused.  She interviewed Department of Agriculture spokesman Jay Van Rein, who was quoted in the article as saying that the new standard for raw milk is, "just a matter of staying ahead of the curve on food safety."

She continued:

The lawsuit contends that "it's not technically possible nor economically feasible" for raw milk to meet such a low limit.

Van Rein, however, said California Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura has checked with his counterparts in Washington and Pennsylvania, which also have adopted a 10-coliform limit, "to make sure their dairies have been able to comply."

A quick search of the International Food Safety Network's Barf Blog for "raw milk" shows that foodborne illness outbreaks traced back to raw milk are not uncommon.  One would argue that stricter standards are not a bad thing.

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Jonathan Golab, or "Science", is a writer for The Stranger, a weekly Seattle newspaper.  He recently answered a reader's question about whether raw milk is healthy.  His answer, in part, was this:

Milk typically comes out of the cow (or goat or human) without any dangerous bacteria. But think of where most milking occurs—all sorts of unsanitary things may be occurring. Milk is a particularly dangerous food precisely because it is so nutritious; a miniscule amount of contaminating bacteria can multiply in the welcoming environment, greatly increasing the chance of someone becoming ill from ingesting it. Pasteurization works by killing any of the bacteria that find their way into the milk, before they can divide and make you sick later. This little step of heating dairy before storage and transport has been one of the most effective public-health inventions of all time.

There are no health benefits in drinking raw milk—the nutrients easily survive the heating.

Science's article is always relevant, especially when considering the public health impacts of the consumption of unpasteurized, or raw, dairy products such as milk.  In recent months, at least 87Kansans became ill with Campylobacter infections after consuming raw milk or cheese. 

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This week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), a publication from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, contains an outbreak report on a Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak associated with the consumption of raw milk and cheese produced at a Pennsylvania dairy beginning in February, 2007. 

According to the report, several people who consumed raw unpasteurized dairy products from the dairy became ill with Salmonellosis and the strain of Salmonella isolated from ill people's stool was indistinguishable from that isolated from a bulk dairy tank at the dairy.  In all, 29 cases of Salmonella were identified as part of the outbreak.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health findings regarding the Salmonella outbreak are summarized in the report:

A total of 29 cases were identified, with illness onset occurring in three temporal clusters during February 3--July 14, 2007 (Figure). The first cluster consisted of 15 cases with onsets of illness from February 3 to March 5. Raw-milk samples were collected February 20 from a dairy A bulk milk tank and February 28 from the home of an ill person. Both sets of samples yielded the outbreak strain of S. Typhimurium. On March 2, PDA ordered dairy A to stop raw-milk sales and advised the public not to consume raw-milk products from dairy A.

On March 19, PDA allowed dairy A to resume sales of raw milk after PDA conducted inspections and recorded two consecutive negative cultures from milk-tank samples. However, a second cluster of three cases was detected when the outbreak strain of S. Typhimurium was identified in another patient, whose diarrheal illness began on March 21 and who had consumed raw milk from dairy A after sales resumed. The two additional cases were identified in persons with onsets of illness on March 19 and March 22. The first of these occurred in one of six ill persons who primarily spoke Spanish and who told investigators they had not consumed raw milk. However, when reinterviewed in early April, three of these six persons reported consuming queso fresco (a type of soft cheese) they bought at a grocery store serving the local Hispanic community. PDA learned that the queso fresco had been made by an unlicensed producer who purchased approximately 20 gallons of raw milk weekly from dairy A. Sale of raw-milk cheeses aged <60 days is illegal in Pennsylvania. Subsequently, in April, PDA inspectors seized 18 unlabeled retail containers of queso fresco from the grocery store. The cheese tested positive for alkaline phosphatase, indicating the cheese was produced from unpasteurized milk (2). Bacterial cultures were negative for pathogens.

On March 27, PDA again ordered dairy A to halt raw-milk sales and suspended its raw-milk permit. No additional cases were noted until June--July 2007, when a third cluster of 11 PFGE-matched S. Typhimurium cases was detected through routine electronic laboratory reporting. Of these, 10 occurred among residents of three counties near dairy A. On July 19, PDA confirmed that dairy A had been distributing raw milk to the public despite its suspended permit; the date when illegal milk distribution began could not be determined. The outbreak strain of S. Typhimurium was isolated from dairy A raw milk collected from a bulk milk tank on July 19 and from the home of an ill person on July 20. PDA ordered dairy A to halt distribution of raw milk on July 20 and subsequently revoked the raw-milk permit for this dairy.

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The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to consumers not to consume Organic Pastures raw cream after testing revealed the product may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium that can cause food poisoning.  The FDA stated in its warning:

This product, marketed by Organic Pastures Dairy Company ("Organic Pastures"), Fresno, Calif., may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause a serious and sometimes fatal disease called Listeriosis in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeriosis can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

The product was sold in retail stores throughout California and was also available worldwide via phone orders, and is not pasteurized. Pasteurization, a process that heats milk to a specific temperature for a set period of time, kills bacteria responsible for diseases such as listeriosis, salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, diphtheria and brucellosisis. The California Department of Food and Agriculture issued an order to Organic Pastures on September 7 to withdraw the raw cream from retail distribution after routine product sampling at the facility detected the bacteria. As of September 20, 2007, the California Department of Agriculture has now permitted Organic Pastures to sell and distribute raw cream within the state of California.

FDA advises consumers to throw away product labeled as "ORGANIC PASTURES Grade A RAW CREAM" with code dates "SEP 14" through "SEP 21".

It is believed that ingestion of as few as 1,000 cells of Listeria bacteria can result in illness. After ingestion of food contaminated with Listeria, incubation periods for infection are in the range of 3 to 70 days, usually 4 to 21 days.

Five days to three weeks after ingestion, Listeria has access to all body areas and may involve the central nervous system, heart, eyes, or other locations. Fetuses of pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to the Listeria bacterium. A person with listeriosis usually has fever, muscle aches, and gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea or diarrhea. If infection spreads to the nervous system, symptoms such as headache, stiff neck, loss of balance, confusion, obtundation or convulsions can occur. With brain involvement, listeriosis may mimic a stroke.

Infected pregnant women will ordinarily experience only a mild, flu-like illness; however, infection during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage, infection of the newborn, or even stillbirth. The perinatal and neonatal mortality rate is 80%.

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Douglas Powell of the International Food Safety Network wrote a letter to the editor of the Charleston City Paper regarding raw milk consumption.  In the letter, which was published today, he argues that raw milk advocates should look at the incidence of positive tests for E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella, and Campylobacter in raw milk before claiming that unpasteurized milk is more nutritious or healthful than pasteurized milk.  He also argues that while people have a choice in whether to drink raw milk or pasteurized milk, that choice should always be an informed decision:

Choice is good. But as the 19th-century English utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill noted, absolute choice has limits, stating, "If it (in this case the consumption of raw unpasteurized milk) only directly affects the person undertaking the action, then society has no right to intervene, even if it feels the actor is harming himself." Excused from Mill's libertarian principle are those people who are incapable of self-government — children.

Science can be used to enhance what nature provided. Further, society has a responsibility to the many — philosopher Mill also articulated how the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the one — to use knowledge to minimize harm. Adults, do whatever you think works to ensure a natural and healthy lifestyle, but please don't impose your dietary regimes on those incapable of protecting themselves: your kids.

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The owners of a Woodland, Washington, dairy paid an $8,000 fine that was assessed after an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak was traced to the dairy in 2005.  The fine was issued by the Washington Department of Agriculture not as punishment for selling E. coli-contaminated raw milk, but for selling raw milk without a license to do so.  Barbara Laboe of the Longview Daily News reported extensively on the outbreak, and has followed the Dee Creek Farm owners' battle with the State over paying the fine.  She wrote:

The Pucketts were fined $8,000 in March 2006 in connection with the 2005 E. coli investigation concerning Dee Creek's raw cow milk. The fine isn't for the E. coli outbreak, just violations uncovered during that investigation.

The Pucketts appealed that fine last summer and today's hearing was to argue their case before an administrative law judge. Late Monday they notified the state they were withdrawing the appeal. Included in the violations was distributing raw, or unpasteurized, milk without the proper state license and inspections.

Raw milk can be sold legally in Washington, but only with a state license and regular inspections. According to state officials, the Pucketts' farm had numerous health and hygiene violations in 2005 and could not have come close to passing an inspection.

Marler Clark represented victims of the E. coli outbreak traced to Dee Creek Farms raw milk in claims against the dairy.  All claims have been resolved.

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The Washington Department of Agriculture warned this week that raw milk may be contaminated with Listeria, a foodborne pathogen.  In a press release, the Department of Agriculture stated:

Consumers who have purchased raw milk from Our Lady of the Rock on Shaw Island, San Juan County, during the week of April 29 should discard it immediately due to the risk of Listeria contamination.

A routine sample of the unpasteurized milk from the dairy was taken April 30 and found to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria. The dairy operation was notified of the laboratory test results on Friday, May 11.

As of today, no illnesses have been reported as a result of the contamination. Individuals who have consumed the raw milk and become ill are advised to consult their physician or their local health department.

Five days to three weeks after ingestion, symptoms of Listeriosis will appear if a person becomes infected. A person with listeriosis usually has fever, muscle aches, and gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea or diarrhea. If infection spreads to the nervous system, symptoms such as headache, stiff neck, loss of balance, confusion, obtundation or convulsions can occur. With brain involvement, listeriosis may mimic a stroke.

Human cases of Listeria are, for the most part, sporadic and treatable. Nonetheless, Listeria remains an important threat to public health, especially among those most susceptible to this disease. With the increase of the numbers of immunocompromised people, the risk multiplies. The fact that Listeria is a disease easily transmitted from mother to fetus through the placenta is worrisome to an expectant mother, especially since pregnant women themselves rarely show outward signs of such a devastating infection.

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Pennsylvania health authorities have issued a warning to consumers who purchased raw milk from a dairy.  The raw milk may be contamianted with Listeria monocytogenes, a foodborne pathogen.  According to a story on the Solanco News Web site:

"During routine inspection, a preliminary test showed the presence of Listeria bacteria in some of the raw milk samples taken from the Misty Mountain dairy," said [Agriculture Secretary Dennis] Wolff. "If consumers have raw milk from this farm, they should discard it immediately."

There have been no illnesses reported because of the potential contamination, but if individuals who consumed the raw milk become ill, they are advised to consult their physician. Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized or homogenized.

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The Food and Drug Administration announced a recall of Archer Farms four-cheese risotto after random sampling of the product tested positive for Salmonella contamination.  The product was sold in Target stores nationwide.  From the FDA press release:

Archer Farms Four Cheese Risotto, Code "Best If Used By 16JUL2008AA" was sold nationwide through Target stores. The Archer Farms Four Cheese Risotto flavor has been pulled from Target stores while the FDA and Aulcorp Food Marketers Inc. continue their investigation as to the source of the contamination.

The Archer Farms Four Cheese Risotto is packaged in a 6 oz. (170g) Paperboard Box with a mustard yellow banner which identifies this item as the Four Cheese flavor.

A consumer alert also went out after routine sampling turned up positive for Salmonella contamination in raw milk distributed in Dekalb County, Illinois.  As reported by WFIR:

The state public health director is issuing a warning to customers of the Brian and Barbara Hill Dairy Farm located in Maple Park.

During a routine inspection a sample tested positive for the bacteria. No illnesses have been reported but if you've purchased milk there since March 27Th, throw it away.

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Raw milk from a Genoa, New York, dairy has tested positive for Campylobacter jejuni, the most common cause of bacterial foodborne illness, according to an article at the Syracuse Post-Standard Web site.  Health officials are encouraging anyone who purchased raw milk products from the Phil Stauderman Farm, 3128 Blakely Road, Genoa, to throw out the products in case they are contaminated with Campylobacter.  According to the article:

A routine sample taken April 16 was found to be contaminated with Campylobacter and the farm was notified of the test on April 19, the department said. The farm voluntarily suspended sales of raw milk on that date, the department said. The tests were confirmed on Friday, the department said.

Meanwhile, cheese sold in Florida tested positive for E. coli during routine testing.  According to an article from FloridaToday.com titled, "Tainted Cheese Prompts Warning," Florida health officials were asking consumers to check their refrigerators for the presence of potentially-contamianted cheese:

The packages include Ole Mexican Foods’ Verole Queso Fresco Authentic Mexican Crumbling Cheese and Ole Fresco Authentic Mexican Crumbling Cheese, according to an advisory issued by Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson.

Bronson said in a statement that the possible E. coli contamination was determined after random testing found the bacteria in batches from both cheeses.

Click here to view the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' press release.

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The Utah county Health Department announced that all milk samples from the Payson dairy farm at the center of a controversy over whether its raw milk products were contaminated with Campylobacter tested negative for the bacterium. From a story in the Deseret Morning News:

"It's very possible that an earlier batch had been contaminated and all the traces worked their way out of the system," said Lance Madigan, Utah County Health Department spokesman.

A spokesman for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food confirmed that the contamination could have happened at the dairy at an earlier date.

"We were testing to check the current batch of milk," said UDAF spokesman Larry Lewis. "This doesn't speak to the milk that may have contributed to the illness of these people, which would have been produced weeks before."

Utah County Health Department officials issued a health advisory Wednesday after receiving multiple reports of campylobacteriosis, a disease caused by ingesting bacteria commonly found in unpasteurized milk products and improperly prepared chicken.

Raw milk has led to numerous foodborne illness outbreaks, and is illegal in many states.

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