{"id":81545,"date":"2026-09-23T23:52:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=81545"},"modified":"2026-09-23T23:52:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T03:52:39","slug":"publix-faces-wrongful-death-lawsuit-over-e-coli-berries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/09\/23\/publix-faces-wrongful-death-lawsuit-over-e-coli-berries\/","title":{"rendered":"Publix Faces Wrongful Death Lawsuit Over E. Coli Berries"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A wrongful death lawsuit was filed in Pinellas County Circuit Court against Publix Super Markets<\/strong> and distributor Quirch Foods<\/strong> by national law firm Morgan & Morgan on behalf of the family of Karla Mullins.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Details of the Lawsuit<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  • Victim & Allegations:<\/strong> The complaint alleges that Karla Mullins purchased and consumed contaminated GreenWise Organic<\/strong> frozen blueberries from a Publix location in Largo, Florida. She subsequently developed severe E. coli<\/em> symptoms and passed away on June 20, 2026.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Additional Illness:<\/strong> Mullins’ son also ate the contaminated berries, suffered severe symptoms, and required hospitalization.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Liable Parties Named:<\/strong> The lawsuit targets Publix for selling an allegedly defective and dangerous product, as well as Quirch Foods as the intermediate distributor responsible for delivering the product to store shelves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Context of the Outbreak & Recall<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Outbreak Strain:<\/strong> Federal and state health agencies (FDA, CDC, and the Florida Department of Health) linked cases to E. coli<\/em> O145:H28<\/strong>, a Shiga toxin-producing bacteria that can lead to severe gastrointestinal illness and potentially life-threatening kidney complications.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Recall Timeline:<\/strong>\n
        \n
      • Chilean supplier Frutas y Hortalizas del Sur S.A.<\/em> initially recalled a single lot of the berries on July 3, 2026.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • By late July, Publix expanded the recall to cover all lots<\/strong> of GreenWise Organic Whole Blueberries and Whole Mixed Berries sold in 10 oz. and 48 oz. packages across eight states (AL, FL, GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, VA).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • The FDA designated the pull a Class I recall<\/strong>, its highest threat level.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        The plaintiffs are seeking damages for pain, suffering, loss of companionship, and medical expenses resulting from the wrongful death.<\/sup><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        A wrongful death lawsuit was filed in Pinellas County Circuit Court against Publix Super Markets and distributor Quirch Foods by national law firm Morgan & Morgan on behalf of the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL2ltYWdlcy0xLTEyLndlYnA_Zml0PTYzOCUyQzQ4MCZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlB1YmxpeCBGYWNlcyBXcm9uZ2Z1bCBEZWF0aCBMYXdzdWl0IE92ZXIgRS4gQ29saSBCZXJyaWVzIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.ax3Eqzlv1k_4Y_Px2_H2O16yH7NKF1Y4yzWDeivIHSAMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA5XC9pbWFnZXMtMS0xMi53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiUHVibGl4IEZhY2VzIFdyb25nZnVsIERlYXRoIExhd3N1aXQgT3ZlciBFLiBDb2xpIEJlcnJpZXMiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.y6DlJpTKVxfeTe9qFu3vNzwIaxpt0dpHwiczfVKkuJMMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[17477,15708,17476],"class_list":["post-81545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-e-coli-berries","tag-publix","tag-wrongful-death-lawsuit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81548,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81545\/revisions\/81548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}