FDA Chief: More Egg Recalls Ahead

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The recall of more than half a billion eggs over the past two weeks is the “largest such egg recall in recent history” and the FDA may need to continue with additional recalls

Free Egg Recall Salmonella Poisoning Case Evaluation: If you or a loved one has been sickened with Salmonella poisoning after eating contaminated eggs, you should contact our law firm immediately. You may be entitled to compensation by filing a lawsuit and we can help.

Looking for a complete list of recalled eggs? The egg recall continues to expand and we will continually update our egg recall list page with new brands and/or companies that are recalling their products.  Please visit the following page to learn more: Egg Recall List

What’s the problem?

August 23, 2010 - Last Friday, Hillandale Farms of Iowa announced that it was recalling more than 170 million eggs. Another 380 million have been recalled by another Iowa producer, Wright County Egg, after the FDA linked the eggs to an outbreak of Salmonella that has sickened hundreds of people nationwide.

According to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, “We have a very complicated network of food distribution in this country. You start with a couple of farms in Iowa and you can get nationwide exposure.”

The eggs were shipped to a total of 17 states across the country: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.

Both Wright County and Quality Egg are owned by the DeCoster family, which has a string of agribusiness interests in the Midwest and Northeast. Those companies’ records have come under new scrutiny since the recalls were announced earlier this month.

In June, company owner Jack DeCoster admitted to 10 civil counts of animal cruelty in Maine after a nonprofit animal welfare group conducted an undercover video investigation and forwarded its findings to Maine animal welfare officials.

In 1996, the Labor Department accused DeCoster of maintaining “sweatshop conditions” for migrant workers at its Turner, Maine, chicken farm, where then-Labor Secretary Robert Reich said workers risked Salmonella by handling dead chickens and manure with their bare hands. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined it $3.6 million.

In January 2002, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hit another DeCoster company with allegations that its supervisors sexually assaulted and harassed female employees, including some of whom were in the country illegally, and threatened to retaliate against them if they complained. The managers were fired for “unrelated reasons,” the EEOC said, and DeCoster agreed to pay a settlement of more than $1.5 million.

Do I have a Salmonella Poisoning Lawsuit?

The Food Poisoning Litigation Group at our law firm is an experienced team of trial lawyers that focus exclusively on the representation of plaintiffs in shell egg recall Salmonella poisoning lawsuits. We are handling individual litigation nationwide and currently accepting new cases in all 50 states.