PITTSBURGH (AP) — A second federal lawsuit was filed against a West Virginia food supplier alleged to have supplied tomatoes that state and federal officials believe are linked to a salmonellosis outbreak that has sickened more than 300 people who ate at a convenience store chain.
The latest lawsuit was filed by Jerri Reges, 39, of Cabot, Butler County, who said she had severe diarrhea and abdominal cramps for more than a week, and was hospitalized for several days after eating a hoagie from a Sheetz store in Butler on July 5. Last week, a Butler County couple, James and Suzanne Groves, filed suit alleging that they were sickened by a Sheetz sandwich July 2.
Neither lawsuit targets Altoona-based Sheetz, however, but Coronet Foods of Wheeling, W.Va.
The company didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment Tuesday, but said after last week’s suit that tests have turned up no salmonella contamination at its processing plant. Still, Coronet has suspended purchasing and processing the Roma tomatoes it supplied to Sheetz.
Based on interviews with scores of those sickened by the sandwiches — and lab tests that show the particular salmonella strain in question is usually associated with fresh produce — the Food and Drug Administration and the state Department of Health have identified those tomatoes as the likely source of the outbreak.
Tests on more than a dozen samples of tomatoes taken from Sheetz sandwiches have come back negative for salmonella bacteria, but authorities say that could be because the tainted tomatoes were all eaten before the test samples were taken from the stores.
Coronet sent 50 samples of Roma tomatoes and lettuce from its facility for independent testing, and none of those samples had salmonella either, company officials said.
Sheetz has 300 stores in six states — five of which are reporting salmonellosis cases linked or believed to be linked to its sandwiches.
Pennsylvania’s health department has reported 280 illnesses linked to the salmonella outbreak, and officials in West Virginia, Maryland and Ohio have reported more than 70 likely linked to the outbreak. Virginia officials is investigating whether an additional dozen cases there could be linked to the outbreak. Sheetz also has stores in North Carolina where nobody has been reported ill.
