Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit upheld a verdict by a federal jury in Nebraska, which has ordered Greater Omaha Packing Co. to pay Cargill Meat Solutions $9 million after a 2007 E. coli outbreak. Greater Omaha had appealed that original ruling, calling it "compromised."
- Greater Omaha, in addition to Beef Products Inc., Lone Star Beef Processors, and foreign producer Frigorifico PUL, supplied beef to Cargill's plant in Butler, WI. Contaminated beef from that plant led to a recall of 845,000 pounds of frozen ground beef in 2007.
- Cargill has paid $25.3 million in settlements for nine personal injury cases related to the contaminated beef.
Dive Insight:
Because the Butler facility was a grinding plant where no cattle are slaughtered, it was more likely that an E. coli contamination would have come from raw materials from Cargill's suppliers.
A three-judge panel later found that Greater Omaha had begun using a new sampling procedure that was not in compliance with Cargill's requirements. From October to November 2007, Greater Omaha reported a spike in E. coli positives, which the company attributed to a fan on its kill floor.
Ground beef remains a key focus for Cargill's future growth. Last month, Cargill announced it was expanding its ground beef business after acquiring FPL Food, LLC ground beef processing plant in Columbia, SC. Beef producers anticipate an end to the decline in beef consumption in the next few years, as beef production and consumption are predicted to rise starting in 2018, according to USDA.