As consumers, we often take food safety for granted. We expect our food–whether it’s from grocery stores or served in our favorite restaurant–to be free of harmful bacteria and viruses.
Food-borne outbreaks, however, happen often, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues recalls on hundreds of food products for health and safety reasons each year.
If you or a loved one acquired a food-borne illness or infection because of a food product you purchased at a store or consumed in a restaurant, you might be entitled to compensation. When a food manufacturer, distributor, or retailer fails in their duty to keep consumers safe, you shouldn’t have to pay for their negligence.
In these cases, food-borne illnesses can be considered product liability, and you should work with an experienced food safety lawyer; call Buttafuoco & Associates today at 1-800-NOW-HURT to schedule a free consultation.
What are the most common food-borne illnesses?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as many 48 million Americans develop a food-borne illness each year, but this is likely an undercount, since many foodborne illnesses are not reported.
Further, 128,000 of these people will be hospitalized and 3000 will die as a result of their food-borne illnesses. Young children, the elderly, and those with weak immune systems are at most risk of developing serious consequences.
Even if a food-borne illness does not result in hospitalization or death, a serious bout of food poisoning can cause you to miss 1-10 days of work and incur significant medical bills. Our firm can help you seek financial recovery for these losses.
The following lists from the CDC provide the top five pathogens contributing to food-borne-related hospitalizations and death each year in the U.S.:
In 2019, seven major pathogens were responsible for much of the foodborne illness in the United States, including:
- Norovirus: the leading cause of foodborne illness (5.5 million cases) and foodborne-related hospitalizations (22,400)
- Salmonella: the deadliest major pathogen, responsible for 238 deaths each year.
- Other significant contributors include Campylobacter, Clostridium perfringens, Shiga toxin–producing E. coli (STEC), Listeria monocytogenes, and Toxoplasma gondii.
Contaminated food is a significant threat to public health, causing millions of preventable illnesses, thousands of hospitalizations, and nearly a thousand deaths annually from these pathogens alone.
Who is responsible for my food poisoning?
To hold a party responsible for your food-borne illness, you must first identify who was negligent in the safe handling of the food product. If you acquired a food-borne illness from a pre-packaged food product like a bag of salad or frozen chicken breasts, the manufacturer, distributor or retailer might be held liable. If your illness occurred after eating food that was prepared by someone else, the restaurant or food preparer could be held liable.
Some common types of negligence include:
- Sick individuals handling food without proper protection.
- Unclean food preparation areas.
- Food stored in unsafe conditions.
- Foreign objects left in food during the manufacturing or preparation process.
Furthermore, it can be considered negligence if a retailer or distributor knew about a food recall and sold it anyway.
If you can prove the negligence of another party caused your food-borne illness or injury, you can collect damages for:
- Medical expenses
- Foreign objects left in food during the manufacturing or preparation process.
- Lost future earning capacity
- Permanent disability
- Funeral expenses
- Pain and suffering
Lost wages
How do I prove my food poisoning case?
The more you can recall about your eating habits including where you obtained the food product and who prepared it, the better it will be for your case.
If a packaged food item caused your illness, you should preserve any unused food along with the original packaging and receipt of purchase. The remaining food or packaging might contain evidence of contamination. Additionally, if a foreign object came from that package, the manufacturer can use the lot or batch number to track down other affected packages.
Product liability law is difficult to navigate, making cases tough to prove, especially considering the immense financial and political backing most food producers and retailers have.
Injured parties must go up against these giant corporations with evidence that clearly demonstrates they failed to exercise reasonable care when handling or selling the food products in question. An experienced product liability attorney can level the playing field and ensure you receive justice and maximum compensation for your damages.
Buttafuoco & Associates can ease your legal burden in a time when you should be focusing on your physical and emotional well-being.
Call us at 1-800-NOW-HURT to get started.