Safeway has a legal duty to its club members to notify them when they've purchased products recalled from its stores, according to a class-action lawsuit filed against the supermarket chain Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court.
Jennifer Rosen, a 40-year-old San Francisco teacher, didn't learn that the eggs she purchased at Safeway were part of a nationwide salmonella recall until she read about it on her neighborhood e-mail. Dee Hensley-Maclean, a Montana mother, had purchased peanut butter crackers and Nutter Butter sandwich cookies during the big 2008 peanut butter recall. She got her information about the salmonella outbreak on the local news.
The two women have joined forces with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit health advocacy group, to try to force the Pleasanton-based supermarket chain, which operates 1,739 stores nationwide, to start notifying its card members in the case of recalls.
"The main thrust of this isn't about damages," said Daniel LeBel, a San Francisco consumer attorney who is also involved in the suit. None of the plaintiffs so far were sickened by contaminated foods. "It's about getting Safeway to do the right thing."
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