The Houston Chronicle recently conducted interviews with 14 former Blue Bell employees and found that many of the workers described a company with declining safety and sanitation standards.
Workers at the company’s Brenham, Texas plant often ran out of hot water, making machinery susceptible to pathogens. Reused packaging brought dirt into the factory. Equipment was used without safeguards for years, and some workers lost fingers.
Blue Bell had to halt production after a listeria outbreak allegedly infected at least 13 people in Arizona, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas from January 2010 to January 2015 and led to three deaths.
The employees’ accounts are bolstered by the information reported by the Food and Drug Administration, which includes details about a contaminated machine that kept manufacturing products even as a listeria crisis continued. The accounts are also backed by an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation that criticized the company for failing to protect workers.
In April 2015, Blue Bell recalled all of its products. The company resumed production in July.
Have Questions About Defective Products and Product Recalls?
When people get hurt in Austin, our injury attorneys provide professional and aggressive legal representation they can trust. Consumers have the reasonable expectation that all products for sale are generally safe and that they will not cause harm. When a product fails because it was defectively designed, or it did not provide adequate warnings about potential hazards, serious personal injuries often occur.
Types of Defective Products
Some of the most common product injuries are caused by:
- Automobile design defects
- Pharmaceutical drugs and products
- Faulty safety features
- Equipment failures at construction sites
- Defective children’s toys
You or a family member may have a product liability claim against the manufacturer, repair shop or retail store where the product was purchased.
The Law Offices of Aaron Allison welcomes the opportunity to put our knowledge and experience in products liability law to work for you. If you would like a free consultation about your potential products liability case, contact our Austin injury attorney online
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