Importance of Experts At Outset of Outbreak
A few weeks ago, I gave a presentation at a CLE seminar about how to use and challenge expert witnesses in a food case. One of the interesting discussions that occurred during my talk was about the importance of retention of experts at an early stage, even before health department officials finalize their findings.
Given the limited resources of most state and local health departments, I have always believed there is little to lose by offering the assistance of credible and known epidemiologists, microbiologists, etc. Additional resources in an outbreak investigation (and, therefore, additional investigation) can mean the difference between the health department pointing at your client and the health department pointing at another source. Several other defense lawyers, and, surprisingly, state health department officials, agreed. Examples of successful early intervention were elicited.
FSIS to Start Posting Plant Testing Data
I wrote earlier about Dr. David Goldman's talk at the ACI Food-Borne Illness Litigation conference and his comments regarding supermarkets. Another significant issue concerns posting by FSIS of microbiological testing results from meat and poultry plants on its Web site.
Continue Reading...Mitigating Supermarket Liability
Last week I had the privilege of attending and speaking at the American Conference Institute’s foodborne illness conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. One of the other speakers was David Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Administrator of the Office of Public Health Science, Food Safety and Inspection Service (“FSIS”), United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”). Dr. Goldman provided some interesting information about foodborne contamination from supermarkets.
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