2/26/2018

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Foodborne Illness Basics: Taking Care of Business

Alyssa L. Rebensdorf

Faegre Baker Daniels

Food Litigation and Regulatory Practice

Food recalls are in the news!

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2016 Food Recall Statistics

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764 food recalls (a 22% increase over 2015) • 305 related to undeclared allergens (milk, egg,

peanuts, wheat) (40%) • 196 related to Listeria monocytogenes (26%) • 99 related to Salmonella (13%)

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Causes of Foodborne Illness Outbreaks

https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/index.html

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Viral Causes of Foodborne Illness: Norovirus

https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/trends-outbreaks.html

Each year on average in the U.S., norovirus—

• causes 19–21 million cases of acute gastroenteritis

• leads to 1.7–1.9 million outpatient visits and 400,000 ER visits, mostly young children

• contributes to about 56,000–71,000 hospitalizations and 570-800 deaths, mostly among young children and the elderly

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Deng, Xiangyu, et al., Genomic Epidemiology: Whole-Genome-Sequencing – Powered Surveillance and Outbreak Investigation of Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens, Annu. Rev. Food Sci. Technol. 2016. 7: 353-74.

Major Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens: The Big Four

2/26/2018

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Foodborne Illness: Symptoms and Incubation Periods

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A word about Listeria...

Foodborne Illness Primer (soup to nuts)

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Investigating Foodborne Illness

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Genetic Analysis of the Isolate

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Epidemiological Investigation: Patient Interviews

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2/26/2018

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CDC Epi Curve

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Personal Injury Litigation

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Personal Injury Litigation

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Personal Injury Litigation

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Personal Injury Litigation

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Damage to Brand and Bottomline?

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2/26/2018

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Chipotle’s One year Nightmare

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Damage to Brand and Bottomline: Beyond Chipotle and into Your Schoolyard

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Damage to Brand and Bottomline: Beyond Chipotle and into Your Schoolyard

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Consumer Foodborne Illness Claims: Mitigating the Risk – Consumer Services

Remember: A recall is not proof of contamination

It’s typically not the last thing you ate!

Learn about the common pathogens (incubation periods, symptoms, typical course of illness)

Do not give consumers medical advice

Ask for the right information from the consumer (consider claim forms specific to the pathogen of concern)

Do not offer to retrieve or test the product

Coupon programs can be helpful

Consumer Foodborne Illness Claims: Mitigating the Risk as a Food Manufacturer or Handler

Lead from the top in building a culture of food safety

Learn what you don’t know about food safety, including sanitation, cooking, packaging, handling and transporting food

Retain consulting experts (FSMA/food safety, microbiology)

Train, retrain, and retrain again

Know your suppliers and require meaningful food safety assurances Contractual guarantees Certificates of Analyses Certification/SQF/Third party audits??

Assess supplier/vendor contracts for indemnity and insurance

Have sick leave policies and mean it!

Conduct thorough investigation, trace back and root cause analyses

Review and update insurance coverage

Questions?