A woman from Kentucky is suing K2D Foods for manufacturing E. coli-contaminated ground beef products that allegedly caused her kidneys to fail and occurrence of seizures.
Melissa Carmicle from Laurel County said she began feeling ill early March after she had eaten ground beef. Hers is the first lawsuit taken against the company, which does business in Carrolton, Georgia as Colorado Premium Foods.
Colorado Premium has other offices in Greeley, Colorado and Wichita, Kansas.
Mass Recall
Carmicle filed suit on April 24 at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Atty. Ryan Osterholm, who represents Carmicle, said his client is currently on treatment by a nephrologist.
"We intend to find out how so much adultured ground beef made it to consumers, and why it took so long to get to the bottom of the issue," Osterholm said. "My fear is we will see many more cases before the dust settles. I just hope no one dies before that happens."
Carmicle is seeking damages in excess of $75,000 and a jury trial. The complaint states that K2D sold "unreasonably dangerous and defective ground beef" and that it failed to conduct proper tests to detect E. coli contamination.
K2D initially recalled 113,424 pounds or about 51,448 kilos of raw ground beef products that have suspected contamination of E. coli O103. Defective K2D products are those that were sold in 24-pound vacuum-packed items labeled as Ground Beef Puck with expiration dates April 14, 17, 20, 23, 28, and 30, 2019.
Products with establishment number 51308 printed inside the United States Department of Agriculture seal were subject for recall.
Similarly, U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced that Grant Park Packing is recalling 53,200 pounds of ground beef.
E. coli-contaminated items were produced on Oct. 30 to 31, 2018 and Nov. 1, 2018, with lot code GP.1051 and labeled as 100 percent ground beef, bulk 80 percent, lean 20 percent fat. The products were marked with For Institutional Use Only.
Dangers Of E. coli
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned the public to safely handle and cook ground beef to avoid food-borne diseases.
The USDA said most laboratories do not typically test for STEC O103 because it is harder to identify than STEC O157. People who are infected with the O103 strain experience diarrhea and vomiting, but some cases may progress to a more severe infection.
Hemolytic uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure caused by the STEC O103 infection, is uncommon among adults. Children under 5 years old and those with a compromised immune system are at risk of developing the disease.
