Product Liability – Food (Plaintiff)

Product Liability – Food (Plaintiff)

Our client is the private label source for a food product for several major retailers. All of the product for one particular retail chain was contract manufactured at a specific facility. The food product was spoiling prior to the normal shelf life (evidenced by the product packaging bursting). It took almost nine months to find, equip (certain packaging equipment had to be custom ordered) and certify a replacement manufacturing source. The original manufacturing facility tried to deny liability claiming that the contamination might have come from the vitamin additive. We obtained an FDA inspection report which showed that the product, after being pasteurized, had been stored at a temperature more than 20 degrees above the maximum appropriate storage temperature, allowing growth of bacteria.