Last month, Del Monte filed suit against the FDA for insisting on a March 2011 recall of Del Monte cantaloupes suspected of being contaminated with a toxic form of Salmonella Panama.
Del Monte has also sued the State of Oregon because Del Monte feels Oregon State’s Senior Epidemiologist, Dr. William Keene, played a major role in initiating the recall. Del Monte contends Dr. Keene acted hastily and without sufficient evidence.
The cantaloupes were imported from a Guatemalan farm by Del Monte Fresh Produce, N.A., Inc., a subsidiary of Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc.
On March 22, 2011, the FDA issued a Voluntary Recall notice for Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A., Inc., recalling 4,992 cartons of cantaloupes suspected of being contaminated with Salmonella Panama, and distributed through warehouse clubs in Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington.
On June 20, 2011, the CDC reported a total of 20 ill people that were infected with Salmonella Panama in several states: Arizona (1), California (2), Colorado (1), Maryland (1), Montana (1), Nevada (1), Oregon (6), Pennsylvania (1), Utah (1) and Washington (5). Among those ill, three have been hospitalized.
The CDC claimed it collaborated with public health officials in a number of states, including California, Maryland, Oregon, and Washington, as well as the FDA, to identify the likely source of the multistate outbreak of Salmonella Panama. Investigators used DNA analysis of Salmonella bacteria obtained through diagnostic testing to identify cases of illness of the outbreak.
Despite the fact that Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, and Maryland Health Departments, along with the CDC and FDA, came to the same conclusion, Del Monte claims these conclusions are erroneous speculation, unsupported by scientific evidence.
In fact, according to Del Monte, “neither the FDA nor any state health agency in the U.S. has offered evidence or data to support the FDA action”.
For obvious reasons, Bill Marler, who is suing Del Monte on behalf of a sick client, has deemed Del Monte’s lawsuit “frivolous”.
Thanks to US CIA intervention, Guatemalan farmers and citizens have been the victims of state-sponsored terror from decades of revolutions, and suffer from the worst record of human rights abuses in Latin America.
We doubt Del Monte’s cantaloupes were carefully inspected by egregiously understaffed and complacent US federal regulators, nor do we suppose Latin American produce is adequately inspected by Del Monte’s slave labor and/or corrupt South American regulators.
Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, and author of Food Politics asks: “Public health agencies now have to defend against lawsuits like this? Putative cause is no longer enough to order recalls?”
Nestle adds that U.S. courts are not famous for understanding epidemiology or other aspects of public health and wonders what effect this suit will have on public protection against foodborne illness. She asks what standard of proof will the courts require?
Nestle suggests that because Congress has just granted the FDA the authority to order recalls, food producers may use frivolous law suits as one method to bypass new FDA powers to force recalls.