It May Not Be Scallions After All
December 12, 2006 by Maricar
Filed under Cooking, Safety at Home
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.
These questions are foremost right now:
1. If it’s not the green onions, what is the carrier?
2. Are the outbreaks from Taco Bell and Taco John related?
3. Until these are resolved, what are we to do?
We’ll have to wait for the official answers on the first two questions. But for the last, my suggestion is to cook at home, wash all produce and cook them thoroughly. I’d still avoid green onions, until they are ruled out completely as the source of the bug.
I haven’t been to the grocery this week so I don’t know if stores are pulling out green onions from their shelves, as they did with bagged spinach a couple of months ago. What are you seeing at your local supermarkets?
Read the story at MSNBC.
Tags: green onions, E. coli, cooking, food safety, housekeeping, homemaking
