Cargill Meat Solutions successfully sued Greater Omaha
Packing Ltd. for $9 million over E. coli contamination of its ground beef, but
now Greater Omaha is petitioning an appeal court to hear the case again.
Henry Davis, president and owner of Greater Omaha Packing
Ltd., says his company tested every shipment of beef trimmings to Cargill and
did not find any E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria.
Omaha was also not Cargill’s only supplier.
But when Cargill filed suit in 2011, it said it was able to
identify Greater Omaha Packing Ltd. as the source of the E. coli
contamination
that led to a huge product recall. It sought about $25 million.
“Greater Omaha’s position is simply that you cannot mix its
raw materials that tested negative for E. coli O157:H7 with other suppliers’
raw materials that have never been tested for E. coli O157:H7 or used a
different testing protocol and then blame Greater Omaha when the end product is
contaminated with E. coli O157:H7,” said Davis.
The case revolves around hamburger produced at Cargill over
two days in August 2007.
Greater Omaha argues while both days’ production had
the same E. coli O157:H7 link, Cargill used Greater Omaha’s raw materials in
only one of those days’ production while two other raw material suppliers were
used both days.
One of those suppliers was located overseas and never tested
for E. coli 0157:H7, according to Davis.
All of this ought to be watched closely by beef producers because it's becoming clear that they could be in for huge legal costs if suppliers can prove their cattle came to market carrying food-poisoning bacteria.
This could be particularly true if the producers failed to use a vaccine that is available to reduce the shedding of harmful bacteria. A recent survey found that only two per cent of producers use the vaccine.