Food Safety Forum
October 20 2006
Bill Marler spoke at Outbreak Response, a forum held at the Toronto Marriott hotel at the airport. His speech was part of a food safety forum that addressed issues surrounding produce-related E. coli outbreaks. Mr. Marler’s presentation was titled “Liability and Risk,” and focused on what the leafy produce industry knew before the latest E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that was traced to contaminated spinach produced by Natural Selections of Salinas, California. He also addressed such legal concepts as strict liability, negligence, punitive damages, and causation as they apply in the US justice system and how these concepts apply to legal claims brought by individuals injured in foodborne illness outbreaks.