Taco Bell has withdrawn green onions from its 5,800 outlets throughout the US after preliminary tests revealed some samples to be infected with a strong strain of E. Coli. The fast food chain, a subsidiary of Yum Brands Inc, took the measure as a precaution, pending further tests on raw fruit and vegetables that will not be concluded until early next week.
Meanwhile it has been reported that health officials are investigating a warehouse in Burlington, New Jersey, as a possible source of the infection. The warehouse ships green onions to Taco Bell restaurants. Tracing the source of an infection like this is a painstaking exercise, since each stage of the supply chain from grower to consumer must be investigated. All non-meat foods are currently under the microscope.
At least five people are still in hospital, including a boy of 11 who has kidney damage, as a result of the outbreak which affected 40 people in New and New Jersey after they had eaten in Taco Bell restaurants last month.
There has been a spate of outbreaks of foodborne illness caused by raw fruit and vegetables recently, some of them fatal. Back in September three people who ate spinach grown in California died from E. Coli infection, and last month tomatoes infected with a rare strain of Salmonella led to outbreaks in 21 states in the US, fortunately no deaths were reported and most people recovered after a week.
Also, earlier this week Jamba Juice of San Francisco alerted the public that strawberries in smoothies sold in some of its outlets at end of last month may have been contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, which can be fatal to children and the elderly and lead to miscarriages and stillbirths.
According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), foodborne illnesses infect about 76 million Americans every year, of which 325,000 become hospitalized and 5,000 die. The estimated total cost to the nation, including pain and suffering, medical expenses and lost productivity is between 10 and 83 billion US dollars a year.
The foods that caused the most infections between 1990 and 2004 were greens-based salads, turkey, chicken, ground beef and shellfish, causing over 800 outbreaks and some 23,000 individual cases in the 15 year period (CSPI database). Infections specifically due to E. Coli resulted mostly from ingestion of ground beef, followed by lettuce, unpasteurised milk and greens-based salads.
CSPI Director of Food Safety, Caroline Smith DeWaal, in December’s issue of Nutrition Action Healthletter” points out that “many outbreaks are never investigated or reported”.
Click here to learn more about how to avoid foodborne illness (CSPI).
Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today