Dive Brief:

• Eric and Ryan Jensen, who have reached a plea agreement with prosecutors over the listeria outbreak that killed at least 33 people in 2011, are filing a lawsuit against Primus Labs.
• The brothers, who face up to six years in prison and millions of dollars in fines, say Primus conducted a safety audit of their operation just days before the cantaloupe harvest began. 
• The source of the listeria has never been determined, although inspectors have found fault with the Jensen's equipment and cooler. In addition inspectors have theorized the disease that a truck use.d to bring fruit to a cattle-feeding operation brought listeria to a parking lot at Jensen Farm, where workers carried it inside on their shoes.

Dive Insight:

The most frightening thing about the outbreak traced to Jensen Farm is that no one knows for sure what went wrong. Somehow more than 140 people across the country were sickened by produce from Jensen, but no one knows how the process started. We have no reason to suspect Primus Labs. But our hope is that this lawsuit may, somehow, shed further light on the outbreak.