Firms Reject Blame in Food Poisoning : Illness: Jack in the Box and Vons officials deny responsibility for contaminated meat. More than 70 have been stricken and a child has died in outbreak.

Jack in the Box and Vons officials denied responsibility Thursday for an outbreak of food poisoning that has been linked to the death of a San Diego child and the hospitalization of more than 70 others in the western United States.

Most of the illnesses were reported earlier this month in Washington, where at least 72 people became infected with the potentially deadly E. coli bacterium after eating hamburgers at the fast-food restaurant chain.

Since then, two cases have been reported in Idaho and five in San Diego County.

A 6-year-old girl died from the infection in San Diego in December, but county public health officer Donald Ramras said Thursday it is unclear whether she was infected by contaminated meat sold by Jack in the Box. Ramras said it also was too early to say if the other local victims were infected after eating at the restaurant.

“You can still eat at restaurants. You can still eat at home,” Ramras said. “Just be sure to have any meat cooked thoroughly.”

Named for a bacterium found in the intestines and feces of cows, E. coli infection can cause bloody diarrhea and painful abdominal cramps in humans and can lead to kidney failure and death in severe cases.

Health experts said that any contamination of beef with E. coli usually occurs at the time a cow is slaughtered. However, cooking the hamburger at 155 degrees normally kills the bacteria, they said.

The batch of hamburger linked to the outbreak had been sold by Vons to Jack in the Box two months ago. However, government officials have not yet determined whether the meat was tainted upon arrival, or whether it was insufficiently cooked.

On Thursday, the fast-food outlet and its supplier denied that their companies were responsible for the contamination and illnesses. In a written statement, Jack in the Box President Robert Nugent maintained that the burgers were contaminated before they reached restaurants. Meanwhile, Vons officials suggested that the problem may have originated with their meat suppliers.

Officials at Jack in the Box and its parent company, San Diego-based Foodmaker Inc., said the chain was alerted last week by Washington health officials that some of its customers were becoming “seriously ill.”

But tests conducted by Washington health officials cleared the company of blame, said Foodmaker spokeswoman Sheree Zizzi.

“The tests were to determine if there was a thawing or partial thawing of the patties while in transit or in storage. They found there was none. The patties remained frozen from the time we received them,” Zizzi said. Washington health officials could not be reached Thursday for comment on her contention.

Those findings, said Nugent, led the chain to conclude that “the problem is, in fact, due to contaminated hamburger.”

But Vons officials disputed that. “We feel confident that we did not contaminate the patties in question,” said Mary McAboy, a Vons spokeswoman.

She said she could not speculate on when the contamination took place, but another Vons spokeswoman, Julie Reynolds, suggested that it occurred when cows were slaughtered by one of three suppliers that provided beef for the patties.

Reynolds and McAboy said Vons routinely samples all its meat for contamination as required under government regulations. The Vons meat-processing facility in Arcadia also is continually monitored by U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors, they said.

McAboy said each production run is sampled for testing, but not necessarily every lot within the production run. She added that Vons has consulted the Department of Agriculture about its meat-testing procedures, but has found no need to intensify or alter them.

The meat that has been linked to the Jack in the Box illnesses came from three suppliers, Vons officials said. Officials at the companies--Montfort Beef of Greeley, Colo., Service Packing of Los Angeles and Orleans International of Detroit--could not be reached for comment Thursday.

According to Reynolds, Foodmaker bought the raw meat outright from two of the suppliers and Vons bought meat from the third. All three batches of meat were processed by Vons according to Foodmaker specifications, she said, and shipped to the fast-food restaurants frozen.

Times staff writer Denise Gellene in Los Angeles contributed to this story. Reza reported from San Diego and Hubler from Los Angeles.