How to Keep Food Free of Salmonella: Lawsuits

When Salmonella-contaminated ground turkey from Cargill had sickened over 100 people and killed one, Bill Marler made Minneapolis-based Cargill an unusual offer: regularly test your meat for antibiotic-resistant Salmonella, and I won't sue you. Marler's firm has won more than $600 million for clients over two decades, with a significant portion from Cargill, which has had four resistant Salmonella outbreaks in ten years. His proposal aimed to highlight a critical regulatory gap: under current USDA rules, companies can legally sell meat contaminated with Salmonella and other disease-causing bacteria. Only E. coli O157:H7 is recognized as an adulterant requiring testing and recalls. "Prior to that, 90 percent of our firm's revenue came from E. coli cases linked to hamburger," Marler said. "That's virtually disappeared—with one little act." He wanted Cargill to perform the same scientifically-based sampling for resistant Salmonella. When Cargill declined and a company attorney told him to sue, he obliged. Cargill later recalled 36 million pounds—the third largest meat recall in history—but stopped short of accepting Marler's testing proposal.