Report: Sara Lee knew of tainted meat

CHICAGO — Sara Lee could face another round of legal wrangling and further damage to its reputation over a year-old federal report that indicates employees and managers knew more than disclosed previously about meat contamination at a Michigan plant.

Sara Lee pleaded guilty in June to a misdemeanor charge of selling tainted meat linked to a 1998 listeriosis outbreak that killed 15 people. The disease sickens the elderly and pregnant women, and can attack younger people with weak immune systems.

The plea agreement stressed that Sara Lee's Bil Mar Foods unit did not distribute bad meat knowingly. But a report obtained by the Detroit Free Press reveals that one employee told Department of Agriculture (USDA) investigators that he or she knew with "virtual certainty" that meats were contaminated with a potentially deadly bacteria.

Plant management had "a similar level of awareness," according to the report.

Phillip Green, the U.S. attorney who prosecuted Sara Lee, said the workers' allegations were "thoroughly investigated." Sara Lee also maintains that it did not cover up contamination.

"We consider this situation resolved," company spokeswoman Julie Ketay said.

But one Chicago attorney is vowing to reopen civil cases that arose from the meat contamination, which also caused six miscarriages and seriously sickened 100 people.

Kenneth Moll, who represented members in class-action and personal-injury lawsuits, said his clients settled those cases based on assertions by Sara Lee attorneys that there was no evidence that the company knew about deadly bacteria in hot dogs and deli meat.

"This new evidence flies in the face of those assertions and clearly shows Sara Lee did know," said Moll, who received two settlement checks Wednesday.

The plea agreement prohibits the government from bringing "additional federal criminal charges" based on information "known to the United States at the time of the execution of this agreement."

Still, it can't be good news for Sara Lee that the Bil Mar case is in the headlines again.

According to the report, plant workers became aware of a listeria problem in December 1997, a year before Sara Lee recalled 35 million pounds of meat.

If Sara Lee had known of the allegations, the company would have investigated them, the spokeswoman said.