In fight against outbreaks, green onions present layered resistance

Penn Live ^ | 11/14/2003 | DAN LEWERENZ

[varina davis]

Hmmm....... The Wal-Mart grocery here was running sort of "blue light" special on green onions yesterday. Glad I didn't buy any. Best to grow your own.

[Dane]

No more eating raw green onions when I eat lamb for me.

[AZLiberty]

Restaurant workers of the world: wash your hands!

[greasepaint]

Where is AlGore when he is needed?

[EggsAckley]

I've been cooking and eating green onions for forty plus years. In fact, green onion is one of my favorite foods. Never, ever have gotten sick from them. I suspect that either the kitchen crew didn't wash them at all, or maybe they didn't wash their hands.

On the bright side, if green onions are not bought, the price should go down. And THAT'S a good thing.

[Western Phil]

Nuke them.

[mdmathis6]

Yes, but this latest Hepatitis outbreak was confined to a single Chi Chi's restaurant, not over a boad regional area that a shipment of bad onions might affect.

[Ditter]

Isn't Chi Chi's a Mexican restaurant? I can't think of once single Mexican dish that calls for green onions. It must have been used as garnish.

[FITZ]

Even Chi Chi's isn't saying it was the green onions that caused this and they admit 6 of their employees have hepatitis A.:

“The origin of this outbreak is still under investigation. We do know that several Chi-Chi’s employees have become ill with Hepatitis A. We have clear and long-standing policies that prohibit employees from working while sick. However, given my understanding of the incubation period, several employees may have worked not knowing that they had been infected or could pass on that infection to others.

From Chi Chi's press release
http://www.chi-chis.com/

[FITZ]

I would think it would be almost impossible for green onions from a human waste fertilized field to make their way to only one restaurant after being picked, shipped, processed, diced, and packaged. Certainly some would have made it into different packages and would be sent to other places.

[EggsAckley]

I did NOT know about the 6 employees! Egads! And they're still working? Anybody checked their immigration status, ya think?
This is disgusting.

[lelio]

Yes, Chi Chi's is a chain mexican restaurant. I actually thought they went out of business several years ago.

It sounds like the trouble with the green onions is that hepatitis can get deep into the bulb, so unless you wash it after cutting (and what do people do beyond washing them in cold water?) its probably still in there.

Most of the mexican dishes I've had have had green onions used as a topping.

[hedgetrimmer]

if green onions are not bought

If green onions are not bought, farmers will quit growing them.

[FITZ]

I think they'll wait until the story dies down before that gets revealed. The CDC website has maps showing which country in North America is full of hepatitis A. And it is full of it ---- I live in an area of high hepatitis A --- one of the border counties.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

Nuke them.

Irradiation is only reliable at eliminating bacteria. Viruses, like hepatitis A, are resistant to the levels of irradiation approved for use in treating foods.

[Ditter]

We live in Texas & we eat out & cook Tex-Mex regularly. There is/was a Chi-Chi's here but the only one we have ever eaten in, is in Seattle. We had to laugh because while it looked like Mexican food, it didn't taste like it. Too far from the source, I think. Too many gringos in the kitchen.

Now that I think about it, the Seattle Mexican food was closer to the real thing than the Tex-Mex we ate in London. LOL!

[FITZ]

[Pete'sWife]

Booker T and the MG's

Great stuff

[WestCoastGal]

This is exactly why I don't eat in fast food or small places like this Chi CHi's. Mexican and Asian restaurants are the worst offenders of cleanliness habits. Have you ever looked at the people that work there??? Not very appretizing for sure.