Food, Drug & Agriculture

September 18, 2020

A federal court in Texas sentenced ice cream manufacturer Blue Bell Creameries L.P. to pay $17.25 million in criminal penalties for shipments of contaminated products linked to a 2015 listeriosis outbreak, the Justice Department announced today. Blue Bell pleaded guilty in May 2020 to two misdemeanor counts of distributing adulterated ice cream products. The sentence, imposed by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin, Texas, was consistent with the terms of a plea agreement previously…

Tomorrow's Food and Feed

How the EU is dealing with illegal food sold online during the COVID outbreak

By Katia Merten-Lentz

September 18, 2020

This article was first published at IHS Markit (subscription required), 3 September 2020 The internet has become a platform for selling food across the globe. This phenomenon has even increased with the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some malevolent operators use the current crisis as a business opportunity and have freed themselves from the EU food legislation, as Katia Merten-Lentz, partner at international law firm Keller and Heckman, and associate Caroline Commandeur write. More and more…

Food & Ag Law Insights

Podcast: COVID-19’s Impact on the Meat Processing Industry

By Ryann Glenn & Mike Annis

September 18, 2020

Partners Michael Annis and Ryann Glenn of Husch Blackwell’s Food & Agribusiness industry team were recently featured over at Meat + Poultry discussing the broad effects of COVID-19 on the meat processing industry, including the potential impact of the Safe to Work Act currently being considered in the U.S. Congress.…

Food Poison Journal

Colorado reports cluster of Salmonella illnesses

By Bruce Clark

September 18, 2020

According to the Sterling Journal-Advocate, Investigators with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Northeast Colorado Health Department are looking into a cluster of Salmonella infections in residents of northeastern Colorado counties. According to Deanna Herbert, a communications manager with CDPHE, 17 cases of Salmonella illness have been reported in northeast Colorado between Aug. 1 and Sept. 17. Eleven of those cases were in Logan County. Herbert said that typically, fewer…

Janzen Ag Law Blog

Harnessing the Wind: 3 Legal Considerations When Signing a Wind Lease

By Todd Janzen

September 18, 2020

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Wind power in my part of the world has become a very popular “clean” energy source for power companies. Wind power has also become very controversial, leading to highly contentious zoning fights at the county level. This article discusses three legal items for landowners to consider before signing an agreement to allow construction of wind turbines on their fields by a developer. Zoning. Large-scale wind turbine projects often become extremely contentious at the county level.…

Make Food Safe

La Aldea Store Salmonella Outbreak

By Make Food Safe Blog

September 18, 2020

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Tippecanoe County Department of Health announced today that it is investigating a cluster of Salmonella cases linked to West Lafayette grocery store La Aldea Grocery Store at 2801 Klondike Road. The TC DOH department is coordinating with the state Department of Health on its investigation into this La Aldea Store Salmonella Outbreak. What We Know About this La Aldea Store Salmonella Outbreak The health department has not yet released any information about the number of…

The Daily Intake

Blue Bell Fined Record $17.25 Million in Post-Conviction Criminal Penalties for Listeria Outbreak

By Nury Yoo

September 18, 2020

As previously reported on this blog, a multi-state listeriosis outbreak in 2015 linked to Blue Bell Creameries LP’s ice cream products contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes led to recalls, state regulatory enforcement actions (discussed here), civil litigation (including shareholder lawsuits), and criminal prosecution of the company and its former president. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 10 people were sickened with listeriosis and hospitalized in Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma,…

Food Poison Journal

La Aldea Grocery Store link in Salmonella cluster

By Drew Falkenstein

September 18, 2020

A cluster of salmonella cases has been linked to a West Lafayette grocery store, according to the Tippecanoe County Health Department. Customers of La Aldea Grocery Store who have eaten or drank products from the store between Sept. 7 and Sept. 17 and are experiencing symptoms of salmonella should call the Tippecanoe County Health Department at 765-423-9222 ext. 1. Those symptoms include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. The store is located at 2801 Klondike Rd.…

Drug & Device Law

Another Supplement Class Action Runs Into Primary Jurisdiction

By Eric Alexander

September 18, 2020

Stop us if you have heard this before. A group of plaintiffs bring a purported class action under a range of California consumer protection laws seeking damages related to the purchase of a medical product (or collection of somewhat related medical products) that they claimed failed to comply with FDA requirements. The defendants raise preemption and/or primary jurisdiction in a motion to dismiss. We blog about the resulting decision. While the problem may be with…

Food Safety News

Tesco and Asda improve Campylobacter in chicken results

By Joe Whitworth

September 18, 2020

Buyer sniffing chicken in store, checking freshness

The percentage of chickens at Tesco and Asda testing positive for Campylobacter at the top level of contamination in the second quarter of 2020 has fallen below the FSA target. The two supermarkets had recorded levels above the Food Standards Agency (FSA) threshold of 7 percent of birds with more than 1,000 colony forming units per gram (CFU/g) of Campylobacter in the first quarter of this year. Tesco reported 9 percent of 132 samples…