Company agrees to $5M settlement in butter flavouring case

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – A company has agreed to pay $5 million to settle claims that its butter flavouring chemicals harmed the lungs of a worker who handled the product at a Missouri plant.

The St. Joseph News-Press reports that Carmi Flavor and Fragrance Corp., of Commerce, California, agreed to the settlement Monday as a Buchanan County jury was being selected to consider damages.

George Giles of Clarksdale, Missouri, claimed in the suit that he was sickened with a pulmonary disease. He blamed his illness in part on his exposure to diacetyl, a chemical used to make the butter flavouring. The suit said the exposure happened from 1997 to 2003 while he was working for the Ventura Foods facility in St. Joseph.

Carmi Flavor didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.

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Information from: St. Joseph News-Press/St. Joe, Missouri, http://www.newspressnow.com