Your Legal Options After a Food Safety Violation

From salmonella to hidden allergens, food safety failures can cause real harm—here’s how product liability law helps hold companies accountable.

Food safety is a topic that’s been top of mind for a lot of people in the United States. Some are concerned about the potential for banning food dyes like Red No. 40 and others, others are concerned about quality testing for milk products, and yet others are worried about bacteria and viruses like bird flu making their way into the food supply in a variety of ways. 

While people have varying opinions about what’s safe or not, one thing is certain: We all want to feel confident that the food we purchase for our families will be as safe and healthy as possible, and will be free from contaminants that could make us sick. 

Every year, millions of Americans get sick from foodborne illnesses caused by contaminated or mislabeled products. While food safety is heavily regulated, failures in production, packaging, and distribution still happen—and when they do, they can lead to serious health consequences and legal liability for manufacturers, retailers, and distributors.

Food safety is a legal category all its own, but it sometimes falls under the legal umbrella of product liability law. Product liability, in turn, is part of personal injury law. 

Product liability is the area of law that holds manufacturers and sellers responsible for putting defective or dangerous products into the hands of consumers.

There are product liability issues that arise from specific food-related hazards that include:

• Contamination, such as E. coli, salmonella, or listeria 
• Foreign objects, such as glass, metal fragments, or plastic
• Improper labeling, including missing allergen warnings or misleading nutrition claims
• Spoilage due to improper storage or transportation

If a person becomes ill or is injured because of one of these issues, they could be entitled to file a product liability lawsuit.

Legal theories for food-related product liability lawsuits

Strict liability

Strict liability applies in some product liability lawsuits, in which cases the injured person doesn’t need to prove that the defendant was negligent. They only need to show that the product was dangerous and caused illness or injury. 

The purpose is to hold a producer liable, even if it wasn’t negligent. For example, suppose multiple people across several states become sick from eating bags of lettuce contaminated with E. coli. 

There are several reasons why strict liability is applied in a food-related product liability lawsuit. These include:

• A consumer can’t detect a food-safety defect or problem on their own. Most food products look normal, even if they are contaminated. The consumer relies entirely on the manufacturer, distributor, and seller to ensure their food is safe.
• Food companies are in the best position to ensure safety. In other words, public policy favors consumer protection. Encouraging better quality control and safety measures helps the public to stay safe because it promotes safer manufacturing processes.
• Strict liability holds producers accountable for dangerous or unsafe food products. Food is sold to millions of consumers in a short time, so a single defect or contamination event can affect many people across multiple states. Strict liability ensures that producers cannot avoid accountability simply because their negligence is hard to detect or occurred upstream in the supply chain.
• This simplifies recovery for an injured consumer. Under strict liability, the plaintiff must only prove that the food was defective or unreasonably dangerous and that it caused injury. There’s no need to prove carelessness or fault, which is often difficult in complex food supply chains. This makes the legal process faster and fairer, especially for consumers dealing with medical issues from foodborne illness or allergic reactions.

In a typical personal injury lawsuit, the burden is on the plaintiff (victim) to prove that the defendant’s negligence caused the injury. This applies in most product liability lawsuits, too. But some product liability lawsuits—including food safety-related claims—follow strict liability. This offers stronger protection to the consumer and is more likely to hold the food producer liable for an illness or injury. 

In other words, the legal doctrine of strict liability places the burden of injury from unsafe food on the companies that profit from sales—not with the consumer who trusted that their food was safe.

Negligence

A food safety-related lawsuit can also hinge on negligence. The plaintiff must prove the food company failed to act with reasonable care in how it sourced ingredients, cleaned equipment, labeled allergens, or followed safe storage or transportation practices. 

An example of a negligence claim in a food safety lawsuit might be if a restaurant fails to refrigerate seafood properly and a diner suffers food poisoning. If it is proven that the staff acted carelessly, the restaurant can be found negligent.

Breach of warranty

A consumer may file a lawsuit for express or implied warranties. In the context of product liability law, a warranty is a legal guarantee that a product will meet certain standards. If the product fails to live up to that promise—and causes harm—a breach of warranty claim might be available.

The Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) governs product warranties. The UCC is adopted in some form in every state.

1. An express warranty is a statement that a food is “100% organic,” “gluten-free,” “safe for children,” and similar.
   
   For instance, if a granola bar is labeled “peanut-free” but actually contains trace amounts of peanuts, this could result in a consumer with peanut allergies suffering an anaphylactic reaction. This would be a breach of express warranty.
   
   An express warranty doesn’t have to be written; advertising or labels can count. The promise must be part of the reason the customer chose that particular product.
   
   The product doesn’t need to be defective to break an express warranty—it only must be non-conforming to the promise.
2. An implied warranty of merchantability is the basic promise that the food is fit for consumption.
   
   This is an automatic, unwritten warranty that applies whenever a food product is sold by a merchant (i.e., grocery stores, restaurants, manufacturers, etc.).
   
   The implied warranty guarantees that the food is safe to eat, fit for the purpose for which it is sold, and is adequately packaged and labeled. For example, if a frozen pizza contains a piece of metal that injures the consumer, the product isn’t merchantable and fails to meet an ordinary safety expectation.
3. An implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose applies when the seller knows the buyer is relying on their expertise or recommendation. The buyer has a particular use in mind, but the product turns out to be unsuitable or unsafe for that use.
   
   For example, if a store recommends a protein powder for a customer with a soy allergy, assuring them it’s soy-free, but the powder contains soy lecithin and the customer suffers an allergic reaction, this violates the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose.

Breach of warranty is different from other product liability claims

Breach of warranty	Strict liability or negligence
Based on commercial promises	Based on product defect or unreasonable danger
Might apply even without injury	Requires an injury or illness
Rooted in contract law (UCC)	Rooted in tort law (personal injury)
Focuses on the product meeting expectations	Focuses on safety and the manufacturer’s conduct or the product’s condition

Regulatory agencies for food safety

The U.S. has several agencies that enforce food safety laws:

• Food and Drug Administration (FDA) governs labeling, packaging, and safety of most food products. 
• U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees meat, poultry, and some egg products. 
• Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requires food facilities to implement preventive controls. 
• State health departments regulate restaurants, grocery stores, and local food production.

These regulatory agencies may issue fines or recalls but they do not compensate an injured victim—to receive damages (compensation), you must file a civil lawsuit.

What to do if you’ve been injured or suffered illness from tainted or defective food

1. Seek medical treatment immediately. 
2. Preserve the evidence by keeping the food, packaging, and receipt if possible. 
3. Document the symptoms and treatment. 
4. Report the incident to your local health department or the FDA. 
5. Consult a personal injury lawyer who handles product liability and foodborne illness cases.

Food companies have a legal and ethical duty to ensure that their products are safe for public consumption. When that duty is breached, product liability law offers a path for injured consumers to seek justice and compensation. With millions of food products processed and shipped daily, even small errors in handling, labeling, or sanitation can lead to major health consequences—and costly lawsuits.

If you’ve been harmed by a contaminated or unsafe food item, understanding your rights under product liability law is the first step toward recovery.