The suit filed in California Superior Court last week is being brought by a Safeway customer in Montana and another in California asking the court to make the grocery store operator pay damages for consumers not receiving a credit or refund for recalled products as well as punitive damages. The customer from Montana purchased peanut butter crackers and cookies included in a recall and the California shopper bought tainted eggs.
"I assume that the foods we bring home from Safeway will be safe to eat," said Dee Hensley-Maclean, one of the two women bringing the suit, in a press release. "If Safeway knows that there is a problem, and they know how to get in touch with me, quite frankly I'm astonished that they wouldn't try to spare me or my children from a preventable foodborne illness."
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which filed the suit last week on behalf of the two Safeway customers, said it had alerted the company it might file a suit back in May if it did not start alerting card holders of recalls. CSPI argues that refusing to notify consumers they are at risk from tainted food is a violation of California's Business and Professions Code as well as some federal statutes.
"Safeway aggressively uses its club card data to churn out coupons, analyze its customers' shopping habits, and otherwise boost sales," said Steve Gardner, litigation director for CSPI. "Yet when it knows it has sold products that may be contaminated with E. coli, salmonella, or other hazards, it does not use its robust marketing database to prevent illnesses or deaths. That is hardly the 'safe way' and just shows Safeway's reckless disregard for the health and safety of its shoppers."