WHO'S TO BLAME? The (second) favorite monkey pastime

Consumers to blame for botulism outbreak, juice maker says
Last Updated: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 | 11:01 AM ET
CBC News

A California company involved in the carrot juice botulism outbreak that has left six people in hospital, including two Toronto residents, is shifting responsibility onto some consumers for failing to ensure proper refrigeration.

Two Toronto residents remain in hospital in serious condition with paralysis. A Florida woman has been in hospital and unresponsive since mid-September. Three people in Georgia suffered respiratory failure and are on ventilators since drinking carrot juice a month ago.

"It appears that it was consumers that did not take the good counsel to keep the product refrigerated," Bolthouse Farms spokesman Tim Warner said in an interview with the Toronto Star on Tuesday. He was referring to the cases of botulism in the U.S., not those in Toronto.

"We have validated that our process of keeping our juice refrigerated through the distribution channel is a good one and of high quality."

But Alain Charette, a spokesman for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said it will be some time before officials can pinpoint what precisely caused the outbreak. He also noted that the toxin can spread when a product hasn't been stored at a proper temperature, but said it must have been present in the juice in the first place.

"We are investigating this along with Health Canada and the U.S. FDA," Charette told CBC.ca. "This could be a way that the toxin has developed but until we have a full picture, we won't point to one cause as the cause."

Discuss: How much culpability does a company have for its own products? The blaming process in this case could go on forever - the consumers blame the company, the company blames the consumers. If the consumers failed to follow the suggestions (are they only suggestions?) on the product's packaging (to refrigerate in this case), are they responsible, do they win a Darwin Award, or should the responsibility go to the company to ensure their product stays fresh enough long enough after going through the supply chain? At any rate, Earthbound Farms, with their E.coli and botulism are in a bit of trouble. That's too bad since I typically eat their produce and live under the mantra that 'shit happens'. It's very unfortunate that five or six people in a population of almost 350 million get sick, but christ - doesn't shit happen sometimes? This probably applies to everyone until it's their own shit that is happening.

I guess we're supposed to be inspiring to keep every fricking person alive on this planet at any cost - you know, the sanctity of life crap. Even though our population numbers began overshooting the carrying capacity of the planet back in the 1980s and now we're three times over the limit, according to some. But I digress...