Food poisoning
or Foodborne Illness is a serious
health risk caused by improper food handling, bad sanitation, and microbe and
chemical contamination. Almost all people experienced foodborne illness, and
most of these cases are caused by bacterial contamination. But since this site
features lawsuits, this article will focus more
on the legal information regarding food poisoning.
If
a person wants to file a food poisoning lawsuit then he or she must prove that
the food he/she ate was defective and
contaminated, and the food made him/her sick. Before I explain the basis of filing a claim, let me first give you the facts and causes
of food poisoning.
Facts and Causes about Food Poisoning
According
the Center of Disease Control and
Prevention or CDC, each year,
one out of four Americans suffered sickness caused by food and beverage
contamination. More than 350,000 of these cases were hospitalized and more than
5,000 suffered death.
Food
can be contaminated in different ways, but most of the time, contamination is
caused by pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. With different causes come
different symptoms, such as vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea.
The most prone to foodborne illness are older people and young children because
they have weak immune systems. Healthy individuals can also be affected if the
contamination is severe.
Applying for a Food Poisoning Lawsuit
Filing a case because of food poisoning depends on the
particular circumstance of an illness. Pinpointing the food that made you sick
is hard because of time delays between food consumption and onset of the
illness. But, if a particular food caused an outbreak and your one of the many
who suffered, then your claim will be much easy.
Food poisoning lawsuit commonly falls under the
category of defective product liability, which means that, a manufacturer sold you a product (in
this case the food you ate) that caused you injury and damage (poisoning).
Other legal theories involving this case are negligence,
strict product liability, and breach of warranty.
The most important part of the lawsuit case is proving
your claim. This is important because this is the basis of your suite case.
First, you must prove that the food you ate was
contaminated. In this part, you must pinpoint the actual food that made you
sick. This is sometimes hard to do as there are time delays between the food
consumption and the onset of the illness. After identification, sample of the
food must be subjected to scientific testing to identify the cause of
contamination such as the type of harmful microbes present. This is important
because this will serve as solid evidence that links the contaminated food to
your illness.
The second part is to prove that the contamination made
you sick. This can be done by subjecting your stool, urine, or blood sample for
laboratory testing. If results show the presence of microbes in your samples
that were also present in the contaminated food, then you have a strong case
and this will strengthen your claim.
Consulting with a personal injury lawyer, or much more
specifically with a food poisoning attorney, will help you with your claim. A lawyer can help you sue food manufacturers and
distributors and get a proper settlement. In case of food poisoning outbreak,
you can also join a class action lawsuit and get
an advantage.
