US Food Poisoning Lawyer at Food Integrity Conference

As New Zealand chefs, food experts, and MPI debate what constitutes a cooked beef burger, leading US food safety litigator Bill Marler, who made his name prosecuting the burger company responsible for a major E. coli outbreak, is today’s keynote speaker at the Food Integrity Conference.

Marler, the founder of specialist food poisoning ligation firm Marler Clark in Seattle, took his first food poisoning case in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, a 9-year-old girl who was hospitalized with E. coli infection after eating a burger. Brianne Kiner’s kidneys failed, her pancreas crashed, her liver stopped working, she suffered seizures and was in a coma for 40 days. Bill settled Brianne’s case for $15.6 million, at that time a Washington state record.

Since then Bill Marler has won food contamination cases against companies including; Dole, KFC, Wendy’s, Excel, Sizzler and Supervalu, securing more than $500 million dollars for his clients.

Food Integrity Conference Convener Dr Geoff Allen says the conference brings together international food experts to help local food producing companies navigate the complex international food export market place, assisting them to understand risks and mitigate against them while building profitable export brands.

Dr Allen says New Zealand’s export producers are facing an increasingly complex food chain. “They are judged on the quality of their food once it reaches the consumer, even though they don’t have total control over the supply chain. The experience and insight of Bill Marler will help exporters understand the risk and develop strategies to mitigate it.”

Attended by some of New Zealand’s leading food producers, the Food Integrity conference is in its second and final day on Thursday 28 June at the Crowne Plaza in Auckland. Bill Marler will give his keynote address at 10.30am.

ENDS

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