ConAgra Pot Pie Salmonella Outbreak - Nationwide
Marler Clark has filed three lawsuits against ConAgra, the company whose Banquet and store-brand chicken and turkey pot pies were identified as the source of a nationwide Salmonella outbreak. The firm is investigating claims on behalf of over two dozen people, most of whom have been confirmed as part of the Salmonella outbreak through laboratory testing.
Public health officials from several states collaborated to determine the source of the outbreak, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially announced that a Salmonella outbreak had been traced to the consumption of ConAgra pot pies on October 9th. At the time, ConAgra did not initiate a recall.
The CDC issued an investigation update regarding the Salmonella outbreak on October 10, 2007. In that update, the CDC announced that at least 152 people had been confirmed as suffering from Salmonella infections that had been linked epidemiologically and through laboratory testing to the consumption of contaminated pot pies between January 1, 2007 and October 9, 2007. At the time of the update, the CDC was aware of 20 people who had been hospitalized due to their Salmonella infections.
On October 11, 2007 – the same day Marler Clark filed its first lawsuit against the company – ConAgra asked stores selling Banquet and other pot pies produced by ConAgra to pull those products from their shelves.
The number of illnesses traced back to the consumption of ConAgra pot pies had risen to 272 by October 29, 2007, the day of the CDC’s final regular update on the outbreak. At that time, CDC had identified cases in Arizona (1), Arkansas (4), California (18), Colorado (9), Connecticut (7), Delaware (5), Florida (2), Georgia (2), Idaho (11), Illinois (7), Indiana (3), Iowa (1), Kansas (4), Kentucky (9), Massachusetts (7), Maryland (7), Maine (2), Michigan (3), Minnesota (7), Missouri (18), Montana (6), Nevada (6), New York (10), North Carolina (2), Ohio (11), Oklahoma (1), Oregon (4), Pennsylvania (18), Tennessee (6), Texas (4), Utah (12), Virginia (9), Vermont (2), Washington (27), Wisconsin (24), Wyoming (3). At least 65 people had been hospitalized due to their Salmonella illnesses.