Scallions tested positive for Taco Bell's E. coli

Taco Bell Corp. on Wednesday has removed scallions or green onions from all of its 5, 800 U.S. restaurants after a preliminary testing by an independent lab that examined three samples of green onions and found them positive for E. coli O157:H7, a specific strain of E. coli that causes illness.

In response to the test report, Taco Bell said though the testing are preliminary, but the food chain has decided to remove the onions as the chain does not want to take chances. "In an abundance of caution, we've decided to pull all green onions from our restaurants until we know conclusively whether they are the cause of the E. coli outbreak," said Greg Creed, president of Taco Bell.

The company is working with state and national health agencies to confirm the preliminary testing, Mr. Creed said.

An outbreak of E. coli was linked to Taco Bells, a unit of Yum Brands Inc., one of the world's largest restaurant operators. Nearly four dozen of confirmed cases of Taco Bell's E. coli sickness were reported in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania over the past few weeks. Of them, at least five remained hospitalized, including a boy, 11, in stable condition with kidney damage.

Due to the concerns of decontamination, the Irvine-based Taco Bell had closed its 18 restaurants including nine in suburban Philadelphia, three in New Jersey and a half-dozen on New York's Long Island.

However, it would be too early to blame any particular supplier of the scallions, but the New Jersey food safety regulators and the FDA are planning to probe some food distributors. They will test green onions, regular onions, cilantro, tomatoes and lettuce from the warehouse of Temple-based McLane Co., which distributes food to the Taco Bells restaurants situated in the region of New Jersey.

They also planned to start probe at a nearby facility of a produce processor, Ready Pac Produce, which handles lettuce, tomatoes, onions and other ingredients for Taco Bell.

This is not the first time green onions are held responsible for the outbreak, rather, in 2003 corrupt scallions from Mexico were blamed for a strain of hepatitis A in western Pennsylvania. At that time, more than 600 people were sickened after eating the green onions at a Chi-Chi's and of them four had eventually died.

Another food related outbreak that broke out nearly four months ago was traced to packaged, fresh spinach grown in California. A nationwide recall of packaged spinach from grocery store shelves and restaurants was announced due to foul spinach that took lives of three people and sickened more than two hundred.

Escherichia coli 0157:H7 are bacteria that normally live in the intestines of human and animals, specifically in cattle. While most strains of the bacteria are harmless, E. coli 0157:H7 is a potent bacterium.

E. coli can cause diarrhea, often with bloody stools. Most healthy individuals can recover completely within a week, but the very young and elderly are at a greater risk of developing a form of kidney failure called Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), which can be fatal.

As per the food safety agencies’ estimates, nearly 76 million Americans are stricken with a food-borne illness annually from consuming contaminated food in restaurants and at home.