Oregon beef producer faces $2.7M lawsuit after E. coli outbreak

An Oregon beef producer is facing a $2.7 million lawsuit after a supermarket chain alleged that it received meat contaminated with E. coli.

New Seasons Market alleged in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that Country Natural Beef committed a breach of implied warranty and negligence among other complaints when the supermarket chain received contaminated meat in 2019.

The lawsuit says that Oregon state officials notified New Seasons Market in November 2019 that three people had been identified as having fallen ill after eating ground beef that was contaminated with E. coli, which they believed had been bought at its stores near Portland.

The court documents further said that the chain issued a recall for a wide-ranging number of products, which included fresh and frozen beef products, ready-to-cook mixes, stew meat and bones. The lawsuit claims that only two samples tested positive for E. coli and both had allegedly come from Country Natural Beef.

“Country Natural Beef promptly adopted and implemented a new testing policy for E. coli,” the lawsuit said but claimed that the Oregon beef producer had “failed to accept New Seasons’ indemnity demand” to address all of the losses that New Seasons Market incurred due to the E. coli outbreak.

The lawsuit said that New Seasons Market was seeking at least $2,712,275.48 in damages that were incurred due to the outbreak including, lost revenue, loss of goodwill and expenses associated with investigating the outbreak.

The Hill has reached out to Country Natural Beef and a lawyer for New Seasons Market for comment.