Dole sued over tainted salad-related outbreak
Dole sued over tainted salad-related outbreak
An Ohio woman has sued Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc. on behalf of her 77-year-old mother, who fell into a coma as a result of a packaged salad identified as the cause of a multistate outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes.
Constance Georgostathis, the adult daughter of Angeliki Christofield, sued Dole on March 7 in a Cincinnati federal court. This is the first Dole lawsuit filed in Ohio in the Listeria outbreak case.
Health officials started investigating the multistate outbreak in September 2015, but the source of the illnesses wasn’t known until January 2016 when laboratory results from a packaged salad collected in Ohio linked the illnesses to Dole’s Springfield, OH, processing facility.
At least 15 people became infected with the outbreak strain of Listeria in eight states and 11 more cases have been reported in Canada.
Seattle attorney Bill Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark who brought the case, said every patient identified has been hospitalized and four have died.
In January, Dole ceased production of all packaged salads at its Springfield facility and recalled bagged and clamshell packaged salads. On Jan. 28, FDA confirmed it found Listeria in Dole’s packaged salad.
Angeliki Christofield consumed the packaged salad on Jan. 20 or 21, started feeling ill days later and fell into a coma on Jan. 31, the complaint said. Testing by the Ohio Department of Health on the same bag of Dole prepackaged salad mix that Christofield consumed showed that it was positive for Listeria.
