Sushi Lawsuit: Over 300 People with Salmonella Have Claims
Attorney Fred Pritzker 
I and my team of food safety lawyers have filed a lawsuit against Moon Marine USA Company on behalf of a woman sickened by sushi tuna contaminated with Salmonella Bareilly. We are also representing other people sickened by Moon Marine tuna.
Get a free consultation about a sushi lawsuit.
Free consultation regarding your sushi lawsuit: 1-888-377-8900.
Today, the CDC reported that there are now 316 confirmed cases of Salmonella Bareilly and Salmonella Nchanga linked to Moon Marine tuna used in sushi rolls (spicy tuna rolls) and similar products:
- 304 people with Salmonella Bareilly have been reported from 26 states and the District of Columbia: Alabama (3), Arkansas (1), California (4), Colorado (1), Connecticut (9), District of Columbia (2), Florida (1), Georgia (13), Illinois (27), Indiana (1), Louisiana (4), Maryland (27), Massachusetts (33), Mississippi (2), Missouri (4), Nebraska (1), New Jersey (26), New York (48), North Carolina (10), Pennsylvania (25), Rhode Island (6), South Carolina (3), Tennessee (4), Texas (7), Virginia (22), Vermont (1), and Wisconsin (19).
- 12 people infected with Salmonella Nchanga have been reported from 5 states: Georgia (2), New Jersey (2), New York (6), Virginia (1), and Wisconsin (1).
People were sickened in the outbreak from January 28 to May 3, 2012. All ages were sickened, including babies. The oldest victim is 86 years old.
A high number of people, 37 (17%), were hospitalized, meaning this was a nasty strain of Salmonella that traveled from India (where the contamination most likely happened) to the U.S. and into restaurants throughout the country. Moon Marine USA Corporation imported the contaminated tuna from Moon Fishery (India) Pvt. Ltd and sold it as frozen yellowfin tuna Nakaochi scrape.
Sushi Lawsuit Evidence
Laboratory testing conducted by state public health laboratories in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin has isolated Salmonella from 53 (96%) of 55 samples taken from intact packages of frozen yellow fin tuna scrape from Moon Marine USA Corporation or from sushi prepared with the implicated scrape tuna product. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) results are available for Salmonella isolates from 41 of the 53 positive samples. Thirty-six samples yielded the outbreak strain of Salmonella Bareilly, and 12 samples yielded the outbreak strain of Salmonella Nchanga, according to the CDC. Seven samples yielded the outbreak strains of both Salmonella Bareilly and Salmonella Nchanga.
Finding the outbreak strains of Salmonella Bareilly and Salmonella Nchanga in intact packages of Moon Marine tuna scrape is “smoking gun” evidence connecting Moon Marine (and Moon Fishery) to the cases of Salmonella poisoning.
FDA Observations of Moon Fishery
Observations made by the FDA representatives during the inspection of a Moon Fishery facility are found in Form FDA 483: Moon Fishery (India) Pvt. Ltd). Although tuna processed at Moon Fishery comes in direct contact with water and ice, there were several problems with the water and ice at the plant:
- Tanks used for storage of process waters have apparent visible debris, filth, and microbiological contamination;
- Sand and activated carbon filter units used in manufacturing ofwater are not sanitized;
- Ventilation for tanks is not filtered to protect against contamination;
- There is no laboratory analysis for water used in ice machines;
- Ice manufacturing lacks sanitary controls: ice manufacturing equipment at the Moon Fishery facility is located outside and is susceptible to adulteration from pests and the environment;
- Apparent bird feces were observed on the ice manufacturing equipment; and
- Insects and filth were observed in and on the equipment
The FDA also found that the company was not monitoring the condition or cleanliness of food contact surfaces:
- Some of the floor and wall tiles in the tuna processing area are broken and cracked, not allowing for proper cleaning;
- After cleaning, the ceiling directly above the in-process tuna line was observed to have visible product residue; and
- After cleaning, product residues and rust were observed on knives (used to cut raw tuna) and utensil storage boxes.
Sushi Tuna Recall Update
On May 10, 2012 Moon Fishery (India) Pvt. Ltd., the manufacturer of the frozen yellowfin tuna Nakaochi scrape recently recalled, expanded the voluntary recall to include its 22-pound boxes of “Tuna Strips”, Product of India, marked as “AA” or “AAA Grade” because the product has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.
On April 13, 2012, Moon Marine USA Corporation (also known as MMI) of Cupertino, California voluntarily recalled 58,828 lbs of a frozen raw yellowfin tuna product, labeled as Nakaochi Scrape AA or AAA. Nakaochi Scrape is tuna backmeat, which is specifically scraped off from the bones, and looks like a ground product.
Food Poisoning Lawsuit: 5 Reasons You Should Sue Now
Attorney Fred Pritzker
Our food safety attorneys help food poisoning victims and their families hold companies accountable for contaminating food with Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella and other dangerous pathogens. Below are 5 good reasons to hire us to file a food poisoning lawsuit on your behalf:
- By filing a lawsuit, there is more assurance that available insurance money is not depleted by payments to other victims.
- When a lawsuit is filed, we can get early access to relevant corporate documents. Without a lawsuit, we cannot force them to share any information.
- A lawsuit crystallizes the food safety message that you and we want to send.
- A lawsuit can lead to a faster settlement.
- When the media covers a lawsuit, they want to have contact with the victim or his/her family so they can tell the story from the standpoint of the victim. This allows people like you to be a voice for food safety and the reforms necessary to prevent this from happening to someone else.
Spartanburg, SC, E. coli Poisoning and HUS: Is it Time for an Independent Investigation by an Attorney?
Fred Pritzker, national food safety attorney
Yesterday, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced that they “found no conclusive link” between El Mexicano Restaurant on East Main Street in Spartanburg and cases of E. coli poisoning and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in that area. Does this mean that El Mexicano is not liable (legally responsible) to those sickened? No, links to restaurants do not need to be “conclusive” for the restaurant to be held liable for medical expenses, lost income, physical pain, emotional distress, and other damages.
Wondering if a restaurant is liable for food poisoning? Contact Attorney Fred Pritzker: 1-888-377-8900 (toll free).
I have won money for people who got food poisoning after eating at a restaurant, even though health investigators could not find a conclusive link between the restaurant and my clients’ illnesses. A “conclusive link” would be finding E. coli in food or environmental samples found at the restaurant. But, depending on the other facts, cases can be won on epidemiological evidence, where interviews with people sickened (parents in the case of children) finds that a statistically significant number of them ate at a particular restaurant.
In addition, if the epidemiological evidence points to El Mexicano in Spartanburg, suppliers of food products to the restaurant should be investigated. If E. coli is found at a manufacturing or processing plant, and that E. coli bacteria a genetic match to the E. coli involved in the illnesses, that would be “smoking gun” evidence linking that company to the outbreak.
Because the health officials are not investigating this outbreak to determine who is liable, victims of this outbreak and their families can contact me regarding an independent investigation of the outbreak to find evidence that will hold those legally responsible accountable.
Contact Fred Pritzker for an Independent Investigation.
Attorney Fred Pritzker represents E. coli and HUS victims nationwide and is an active food safety advocate. He recently participated in a food safety debate at Harvard Law School and frequently travels throughout the United States speaking at food safety conferences. His clients have testified before Congress and have appeared on television to tell their stories. To contact Fred, call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit our free consultation form.
Spartanburg, SC E. coli, HUS and TTP from Mexican Restaurant
Attorney Fred Pritzker
An outbreak of E. coli O157 and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) has been associated with eating at a Spartanburg-area Mexican Restaurant, according to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). HUS is a severe complication of an E. coli infection that causes kidney failure and can lead to stroke, blindness, heart failure, pancreatitis, and a host of other health problems. HUS most often develops in young children. When E. coli infects the kidneys of adults, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) can develop, and sometimes TTP-HUS.
I and my team of E. coli lawyers have handled many cases like this throughout the United States. Many of our cases involve restaurants.
Get your free E. coli-HUS case review here.Two of the three outbreak victims interviewed by DHEC have E. coli-HUS. Eight additional outbreak victims have not yet been interviewed. All of them ate at the Spartanburg-area Mexican restaurant the last week of April, 2012.
Because of the high incidence of HUS, DHEC has issued a health advisory to medical professionals requesting heightened surveillance for persons presenting with symptoms consistent with Shiga toxin producing E. coli (i.e., enterohemorrhagic E. coli), including diarrhea that is often bloody, HUS in or TTP in adults:
- E coli signs and symptoms: gastroenteritis with diarrhea and abdominal cramps (fever and bloody stools may or may not be present), and/or HUS with or without gastroenteritis, which typically develops a week after the onset of diarrhea.
- HUS signs and symptoms: acute onset of microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, renal injury, and low platelet count. Most cases of HUS occur after an E. coli infection. In some cases, the child develops symptoms of HUS before the E. coli infection is diagnosed. In some cases, there is no longer any E. coli in the intestines of the child, making a post-HUS diagnosis of E. coli difficult. This is why the CDC recommends that all children with suspected cases of HUS should have their bottoms (dried feces) swabbed immediately and tested for E. coli.
The CDC does not recommend the use of antibiotics for patients with suspected E. coli infections until complete diagnostic testing can be performed and E. coli is ruled out. However, clinical decision
making must be tailored to each individual patient. There may be indications for antibiotics in patients with severe intestinal inflammation (E. coli colitis) if perforation is of concern. We are representing a client sickened in another E. coli outbreak who had such severe colitis that she had to have part of her colon removed and now has a colostomy bag.
Spartanburg, SC is in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. It is the second-largest city in the greater Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson area and is part of the northwestern South Carolina region known as “The Upstate.” Spartanburg is 98 miles from Columbia, SC, 80 miles west of Charlotte, NC and about 190 miles northeast of Atlanta, Georgia.
Organic Pastures Milk Recall Prompted by Campylobacteriosis Outbreak
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced a statewide recall and quarantine order involving Organic Pastures Dairy of Fresno County, CA. Raw milk, raw skim milk (non-fat), raw cream and raw butter produced by Organic Pastures are the subject of the recall.
The quarantine order came following reports of 10 cases of campylobacteriosis (food poisoning from Campylobacter bacteria) and the confirmed detection of Campylobacter bacteria in Organic Pastures raw cream. Onset of illness was from January through April of 2012.
All of the people sickened, most of them children, consumed Organic Pastures raw milk before they got sick, and Campylobacter bacteria were found in Organic Pastures raw cream. This epidemiological and microbiological evidence indicates that Organic Pastures raw milk is the source of the Campylobacter illnesses.
I and attorney Brendan Flaherty are our firm’s lead attorneys for our campylobacteriosis lawsuits. We have handled cases just like these and are available for a free consultation.
Tuna Sushi Food Poisoning Lawsuit Filed: Join Over 250 Salmonella Victims and Get Compensation
by Attorney Fred Pritzker
Yesterday, my law firm filed a lawsuit against Moon Marine USA Corporation on behalf of a victim of the Salmonella outbreak linked to tuna used for sushi rolls and similar products. I and my Salmonella litigation team are also representing other victims from several states and are preparing to file additional lawsuits.
Join other victims and get a free Salmonella case review.We represent Salmonella victims throughout the United States. This outbreak has sickened people in 24 states and Washington DC:
Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
Tuna Sushi Lawsuit Evidence
The outbreak investigation has uncovered significant evidence that Moon Marine sushi tuna (called Nakaochi scrape) contaminated with Salmonella caused the outbreak.
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Free consultation regarding your tuna sushi food poisoning lawsuit: 1-888-377-8900.
FDA laboratories have identified Salmonella in two samples of Nakaochi scrape yellow fin tuna with a PFGE pattern indistinguishable from the Salmonella Bareilly strain associated with this outbreak. Every Salmonella outbreak has its own, unique outbreak strain, so this is the “smoking gun” that connects Moon Marine tuna to the Salmonella Bareilly illnesses. This evidence can be used in a tuna sushi food poisoning lawsuit against the company
- Testing conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection laboratory isolated the outbreak strain of Salmonella Bareilly from one sample of recalled tuna and one sample of a spicy tuna roll made with recalled tuna.
- FDA laboratories also identified another type of Salmonella found in Moon Marine tuna scrape with a PFGE pattern indistinguishable from a cluster of Salmonella Nchanga infections. This is the “smoking gun” evidence that connects the tuna to the Salmonella Nchanga illnesses.
- Most people sickened in the outbreak ate sushi rolls or similar products made with Moon Marine tuna scrape.
You have suffered and will continue to suffer great physical and emotional pain because tuna scrape was adulterated with a dangerous pathogen. My experience is that outbreaks like this one are caused by poor sanitation measures and inadequate pathogen testing. You deserve compensation for your physical pain, emotional distress, medical expenses and lost income. Contact me at 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or submit the free consultation form.
