Minnesota Food Poisoning Lawyer Calls on Lunds and Byerly's to Pay Medical Bills

Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) May 9, 2007

Fred Pritzker, a Minneapolis foodborne illness lawyer and food safety advocate, called for Lunds and Byerly's to pay victims' medical bills. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has linked at least seven E. coli cases linked to ground beef sold at Lunds and Byerly's. Two of the victims were children.

"No matter what the source of the E. coli is," Pritzker said, "it is only fair that the retailer pay for the medical bills of its injured customers. The families deserve that peace of mind." According to Pritzker, other corporations involved in E. coli outbreaks have advanced medical expenses to those injured by their food products. "Corporate responsibility means taking concrete steps to right a wrong," Pritzker said. "It is time for Lunds and Byerly's to step up and guarantee that its customers will not be stuck with hundreds or thousands of dollars in medical bills."

Pritzker also stated that he believes retailers should do more to ensure that meat processors follow state of the art techniques. "It is really up to retailers to demand that the meat they sell is produced under the safest possible conditions," Pritzker said. "Retailers have the market power to change dangerous practices."

Pritzker represents victims from recent E. coli outbreaks including the Longville, Minnesota outbreak and the national outbreak of contaminated spinach in which one of his clients, a Wisconsin woman, died.

Pritzker believes that the health department's current investigation will find the cause of the contamination because all the ground beef sold at Lunds and Byerly's comes from a single processing facility.

"The most challenging part of an E. coli investigation is tracing the bacteria back to its source," Pritzker said. "The fact that Lunds and Byerly's sold ground beef processed in a single facility makes the trace-back process much easier."

Another important part of such an investigation, according to Pritzker, is testing intact products. "Genetic testing that matches bacteria in a package to the bacteria making people sick is some of the strongest possible evidence on the source of an outbreak. The question then is how did the bacteria get in that product."

E. coli can be found on most cattle farms, and can live in the intestines of healthy cattle, deer, goats, and sheep. Meat can become contaminated during slaughter, and organisms can be accidentally mixed into meat when it is ground. Careful production techniques, according to Pritzker, are essential to preventing E. coli contamination.

Pritzker uses his food poisoning blog, http://foodpoisoning.pritzkerlaw.com/, to advocate for labeling rules that identify the source of ground beef. "Labeling that shows where meat has come from is a common sense way of identifying problems in meat production and encouraging responsible production." Pritzker is also calling for better testing of ground beef before it reaches store shelves.    

Pritzker | Ruohonen & Associates, P.A. is one of the few law firms in the United States that practices extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation. The firm has collected millions of dollars on behalf of victims of E. coli poisoning and other foodborne illnesses. For more information, visit http://www.pritzkerlaw.com or contact Fred Pritzker at (612) 338-0202. Pritzker | Ruohonen has offices are located at Plaza VII, Suite 2950, 45 South Seventh Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402

###