With all of the recent salmonella and E. coli outbreaks – beef, peanut butter, cookie dough, spices, and others – the food poisoning lawyers at Simon & Luke have been fielding a huge volume of calls from concerned citizens who want to know whether they have a viable food poisoning case.  The answer is a lengthy one – but here is what we tell them:

Most food poisoning illnesses are never identified

First, it is important to understand that most food poisoning illnesses are never specifically identified.  Almost everyone has suffered from food poisoning at one time or another in their lives.  The most common symptoms of food poisoning are abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and/or fever.  These symptoms can be caused by the ingestion of thousands of different types of bacteria.

Cultures determine the species of bacteria

To determine which bacteria is causing the symptoms requires a physician to perform a culture of stool, urine, or blood.  The physician takes a sample from the patient and sends it to the laboratory.  The laboratory technician then places the sample in a medium which encourages bacteria to grow.  The culture can take anywhere from 12 hours to 3 days to complete.  When the culture is complete, the lab technician examines the specimen under a microscope and makes a positive identification of the species of bacteria present (i.e. E. coli, salmonella, etc.).  This information is then reported back to the doctor, who can prescribe the correct treatment for that bacterial infection.

It is important to note that in most mild cases, doctors do not order a culture and simply treat the symptoms.   Even when a culture is ordered, the detection of bacteria can be very difficult.  When examining each of these cultures, the laboratory technician is asked to segregate a particular type of bacteria from thousands of other bacteria which are normally present in the cultures.   In addition, cultures taken from people who have already started a course of antibiotics are less likely to produce positive results, even if those persons are infected.  As a result, only a very small portion of food borne illnesses are officially detected and reported nationwide.

Positive results are reported to the health department and CDC

By law, a doctor is required to report to the local health department a positive test result for any reportable disease (such as salmonella, E. coli, or shigella, for example).  The local health department monitors these reports.  Most of the time, the health department will then perform a kind of “DNA fingerprinting” on the laboratory sample to determine the exact genetic makeup of the bacteria.

Bacteria such as salmonella and E. coli have unique fingerprints just like people do.  Each type of bacteria has unique DNA which makes up a pattern of bands called a fingerprint.

The fingerprints that scientists use to identify bacteria are called PFGE patterns.  PFGE stands for Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis.  Scientists find bacterial fingerprints by cutting the bacteria’s DNA into tiny pieces and then placing them on a gel, which is a flat slab of gelatin.  When scientists send electricity through the gel, the DNA pieces separate.  Small pieces of DNA get carried farther down the gel than bigger pieces.  This process creates a banding pattern or “fingerprint”.

The health department then sends the PFGE results to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), who monitors all reportable food borne illnesses in the United States.  The CDC will immediately declare an outbreak and alert state and local officials if two or more persons produce the same PFGE results – which indicates that those persons became ill from a common food source.

The health departments interview persons with identical PFGE results to find the source

Once an outbreak has been identified, public health officials then conduct intensive investigations.  This includes visiting the suspected manufacturing plant, taking numerous samples from different areas of the plant, and searching through corporate documents and testing results.  The investigators will also attempt to interview all of the persons with the identical PFGE results, to determine what common food source was consumed.  The infected persons are asked to identify everything they ate within the week prior to the onset of illness. Sometimes, as an investigation narrows, an infected person may be interviewed 2 or 3 times. Once the common food source is identified, the food manufacturer is notified, food production is halted, and the tainted food is recalled.

The CDC identifies confirmed cases

The CDC, in conjunction with the local and state health departments, will then provide a definition of a “confirmed case.” A confirmed case is normally defined as a laboratory-confirmed infection with a PFGE result matching the outbreak and an illness onset within a specific time period.

So how do I know if I have a case?

If your stool, urine, or blood culture tests positive for a reportable disease (salmonella, E. coli , shigella, etc.) AND you are contacted and interviewed by a local or state health department, then you are probably a confirmed case related to an identified outbreak.

If you are a confirmed case, you need to contact a food poisoning lawyer immediately to understand your legal rights.  It is critically important that key pieces of evidence – such as the remainder of the contaminated food – be preserved and tested by experts.  It is also important that steps are taken to inspect the plant where the food was manufactured and other facilities along the food distribution chain so that the contamination can be stopped and the problem resolved so that it does not happen again.

Simon & Luke

The food poisoning lawyers at Simon & Luke have handled over 2000 food poisoning cases in the past 2 years alone.  We have filed hundreds of food poisoning lawsuits and personally inspected numerous food manufacturing plants.  Our lawyers have been interviewed by NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, the Associated Press, and numerous other media outlets.  We are often called upon to provide commentary on an outbreak, and we regularly speak at food poisoning conferences in an effort to help others learn about how outbreaks can be prevented.

We are here to answer all of your food poisoning questions, and we provide legal consultations free of charge.  If you or a loved one has suffered a food poisoning illness, please call us toll free at 1-888-335-4901.  We want to help.