 |
Speak Up! - View Question #282 |
 printer friendly version
Question: If a person gets sick or dies from food poisoning, can they sue (and recover) from the makers or suppliers of the food?
Answer: Yes, they can. We hold restaurants and food suppliers to a high standard and they are considered strictly liable for failure to provide safe products for consumption. Interestingly, the food as well as its container, are considered one product or item. So, if the food is bad and causes injury, a person could seek damages. The same if they are injured by the plate or container, like if a bottle bursts and causes injury.
The difficulty in this type of case is in proving actual causation of injury and the amount of actual damages. If someone eats something and drops dead on the spot, it may be easier to prove the cause (something he ate) and damages (he died). Compare this to eating or drinking several things, getting sick hours or days later, maybe after eating some more things, and getting sick, but not being severely or permanently injured. Which food or foods caused the injury? How much injury was there?
The other mechanism besides the courts, of course, is to report the food supplier the the local board of health regulation. All restarts must be licensed by these agencies and local health boards usually require restarts to pass inspections in order to continue serving food.
|
[ 
