First Spinach, Now Scallions
December 8, 2006 by Maricar
Filed under Cooking, Product News and Reviews, Safety at Home
A couple of months ago, spinach was in the news as the carrier of a deadly E. coli strain. Another kind of fresh produce is making headlines now. Scallions, or green onions, are suspected in a recent E. coli outbreak.
An E. coli outbreak that has sickened more than 60 people in the Northeast is prompting concern among West Coast farmers after officials announced that scallions suspected as carriers of the bacteria came from a Southern California farm.
….“Illnesses are still occurring, and we consider the outbreak to be ongoing,” said Dr. Christopher Braden, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC said it expected the number of cases to grow. As of Friday afternoon, the agency had counted 62 confirmed cases, most of them in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Taco Bell has figured prominently in this outbreak. However, there are as yet no final answers as to the bug’s source and its distribution. Taco Bell has already removed all green onions in its restaurants in the U.S. and Canada. For now, I’d also avoid all fresh green onions sold in supermarkets.
Incidentally, the Ready Pac label was involved in the spinach outbreak, and is also among those suspected here. (Though preliminary tests have shown that the E. coli strain in the green onions is different from what was found in the spinach.)
[Source: MSNBC; Image: Purdue University
Tags: scallions, green onions, E. coli, cooking, food safety, housekeeping, homemaking
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] I’m continuing to follow news of the recent E. coli outbreak involving Taco Bell, and now Taco John’s, restaurants. Recent reports suggest it may not be the green onions (or scallions) that are the carriers of the bacteria after all. Health officials in New York found contaminated white onions, but the bacterial strain is different from what’s been causing the recent illnesses. [...]