A third lawsuit has been filed against a pine nut importer over the multistate outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) first announced Oct. 26.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 43 people in six states were infected with the outbreak strain of SE after eating pine nuts imported from Turkey.
A Fairport, NY mother and her child are the latest to sue American Pistachio Commodity Corp, which does business as Sunrise Commodities. The importer supplied pine nuts to bulk bins in Wegmans grocery stores.
The six-year old girl and her mother both were infected from consuming pine nuts purchased at a Wegmans store on Oct. 21. The child required emergency medical care. Mother and daughter are still recovering from their illnesses.
Food safety attorney Bill Marler and Rochester trial attorney Paul V. Nunes are representing the mother and child. Marler is also publisher of Food Safety News.
The lawsuit was filed Nov. 28 in U.S. District Court in Rochester, NY.
Arizona, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia reported SE cases related to the outbreak. More than half the cases (26) involved New Yorkers.