Natural strawberries or milk might be supply – KIRO 7 Information Seattle

Bill Marler, a food safety attorney, represents three children infected with the recent E. coli outbreak. He said there are at least 11 cases nationwide, including patients in King, Snohomish and Walla Walla counties.

The Washington State Department of Health uses genome sequencing to determine if the cases are linked.

Marler spoke to the parents of three children who got sick, including a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old. Young children have less variety in their diet, which makes it easier to focus on one source. Marler said all three children had organic strawberries and organic milk. Two of the children are siblings. The two families are not linked. A little girl was due to leave Seattle Children’s Hospital on Friday.

“What I’ve found so far is that there seems to be a connection between organic dairy products and organic strawberries,” said Marler. “That may not be what it ultimately is, but when you have essentially 25% of the sick, I am starting to worry that we are getting closer.”

It wouldn’t be the first time strawberries have been linked to an outbreak.

In 2011, strawberries infected 15 people in Newberg, Oregon. Two of them died. Deer droppings were found to be the source of the contamination.

Marler said he was confident the local and state health departments are getting close to identifying the source. They interview the victims’ parents, search grocery store receipts, credit card records, and find where the parents were and what they bought before their children got sick.

In the meantime, he urges parents to wash fresh produce thoroughly and may not even feed them to young children until the source of the E. coli is discovered.

“I think it is currently not a problem for the very young and very old to avoid fruit and vegetables for about a week,” said Marler.

He added that he believes it is possible that organic milk is the source. Although it is pasteurized, it is possible that cross-contamination will occur afterwards.

Marler also wrote in the Food Poison Journal that the outbreak may be related to a dairy farm.

On Friday evening, KIRO 7 announced that Pure Eire Dairy announced that it is voluntarily recalling all of its yogurt products due to possible E. coli contamination.

The company said it was contacted by the Washington State Department of Health about a possible link between the Pure Eire and PCC brands and possible E. coli contamination.

“We are waiting for more test information. As a precaution, however, we are voluntarily recalling all of our yogurt products and stopping yogurt production until further investigations are carried out, ”said a company spokesman.

Retailers selling the products are asked to remove the company’s yogurt from inventory and stop selling.

Customers who have the yogurt on hand are advised to stop consuming it.

According to Pure Eire Dairy, the Washington State Department of Agriculture pulled 12 random samples of yogurt from various store shelves and all of them were negative for E. coli. However, the dairy is still waiting for further investigation.

The Washington State Department of Health is expected to receive more information about the outbreak in the coming days.