Consumers may be entitled to a piece of a multi-billion dollar settlement if they consumed some recalled Silk brand plant-based beverages that were part of a deadly listeria outbreak in 2024.
Those who want to file a claim, and potentially receive a share of the settlement, have until Oct. 16, 2026, to submit.
A class-action lawsuit brought against Danone Canada has been settled and now approved for $7.5 billion after a listeria outbreak in 2024 that lead to the deaths of three people, with dozens of others reporting being sickened and hospitalized. It was traced back to a line of plant-based refrigerated beverages, which were believed to be the source of the outbreak.
The beverages were sold under the Silk and Great Value brands, and may have included some almond, oat, coconut, cashew or a combination of flavours.
Listeria is a bacteria that can be found in the environment, and can cause illness known as listeriosis when eating food or drinking water that has been contaminated with the bacteria, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
The agency says there were 20 reported illnesses, 15 hospitalizations and three deaths from symptoms believed to have been related to consuming the contaminated beverages in 2024.
Details of the settlement were made public Friday in a release, which says the national settlement was approved in the Superior Court of Quebec in April on behalf of Canadians who purchased or ingested products under the recall initiated by Danone Canada on July 8, 2024.
Some of those people, the release said, suffered “physical and/or psychological harm.”
The defendants in the case, which includes Danone Canada, “deny all allegations and deny any wrongdoing or liability,” according to the settlement notice.
Here’s how to file a claim and how much could be paid out.
Those who want to submit a claim can do so online via the settlement website.
When submitting a claim, there is a detailed form to fill out, and the claim requires supporting evidence that matches the level of compensation, or payout, that each claim is relevant to.
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This means, depending on the severity of illness or harm otherwise experienced from consuming the product, the required supporting evidence will vary, as will the amount of money being compensated according to an included compensation grid.
In some of the more minor cases, claimants may need to provide proof of purchase of the recalled product or make a declaration of the purchase and consumption of the product, as well as make a declaration attesting to their physical and/or psychological impacts from consuming the recalled products.
For more severe cases, claimants may also need to include detailed medical and other records.
There are six levels of compensation available depending on the claim submitted, and range from a $400 payout and up to $300,000.
In most cases, those submitting a claim could receive between $400 and $7,000 if they consumed the recalled product and developed a physical illness consistent with listeriosis and/or a psychological disorder from exposure to the recalled product but were not hospitalized as a result.
The amount of compensation increases depending how long these claimant had symptoms for.
In the case of the minimum compensation level, a person may qualify if they experienced symptoms consistent with listeriosis that lasted up to 48 hours following the consumption of the recalled product, and/or developed symptoms consistent with a psychological disorder caused by exposure from the recalled product.
For the $7,000 payout, claimants would have experienced symptoms lasting more than one week.
Some symptoms listed for illness consistent with listeriosis in the compensation grid include vomiting, nausea, fever, cramps, diarrhea, constipation, muscle aches, headache, neck stiffness, confusion, and loss of balance.
The documents say claimants may qualify if they consumed the recalled product, and then developed symptoms consistent with a psychological disorder caused by exposure to the same product. This includes symptoms that are “more acute than upset, disgust, anxiety, insomnia or agitation.”
For more serious cases of illness and psychological harm, hospitalizations and even death may have occurred for some individuals.
If someone consumed the recalled product, and developed physical and/or psychological symptoms consistent with listeriosis and ended up in the hospital, the minimum they may receive is up to $30,000 if they did not develop complications or permanent symptoms.
For those that were hospitalized similar to the previous example, if they did develop severe complications and/or permanent symptoms, they could receive up to $150,000.
If the illness or symptoms otherwise resulted in death, as was the case for three individuals, their estates and/or beneficiaries may be entitled to up to $300,000.
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