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Posted on 11/21/2003 8:09:43 AM PST by Dane
According to a press conference by the Pennsylvania Dept. of Health, the cause of the Hepatitis A outbreak, that has so far infected 575 people and caused 3 deaths, came from green onions.
All those infected ate at a Chi-Chi's restaurant at the Beaver Valley Mall located in Center Township, PA.
Well, it is definitive as far as it goes, but it will be more comprehensively definitive if they can determine how the Hep-A got onto the onions.
Really? I live in the Seattle area and was listening to the local morning broadcasts this a.m., and they were saying that the green onions DID come from Mexico.
I, personally, have had a policy of NOT buying veggies from Mexico for years. I disagree with NAFTA and would prefer paying a few cents more for stuff from CA or WA. But, the other reason I avoid Mexican veggies is that every time we have one of these hepatitis outbreaks from vegetables, it inevitably seems to be traced back to Mexico. I avoid Mexican produce if at all possible.
FDA bans scallions linked to hepatitis A outbreak 11/20/2003 8:28 PM By: Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Mexican scallions from companies linked to outbreaks of hepatitis A are getting held at the U.S. border.>P? The Food and Drug Administration said investigators implicated raw green onions from three firms.
It said products from those companies are being held for investigation.
The liver infections occurred in Tennessee and Georgia last September.
FDA also said it is looking into the source of the latest outbreak of hepatitis A, the largest known in U.S. history.
It left three dead and sickened more than 540 people who'd eaten at a now-closed Chi-Chi's Mexican restaurant in western Pennsylvania
From this thread:
Green onions stay low to the ground, LaBorde said, with the bulb below the ground and the shoots sticking up. If human or animal waste is used as fertilizer, or if contaminated water is used to irrigate the field, the virus can easily work its way down into the plant.Good to hear that thoroughly cooking them does the trick.And once the plant is contaminated, it's almost impossible to clean because of the onion's many layers, said Dr. Ronnie Martin, chair of family medicine at Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
"If I contaminated a large field of green onions, and it got down inside the top of that growing onion, I would almost have to slice down each one of those layers and wash the whole thing inside and out," Martin said.
Martin said the virus can be killed by thoroughly cooking food, but green onions often are eaten raw or only lightly cooked.
I've heard they fertilize their produce with people poop. Is that true?
Though some of the best uses for scallions involves eating them raw.
As a former orchardists wife, I laugh at people who think all the cheap produce is great....it comes with a price....like all those sprays we can't use here in the USA....well they use them elsewhere, and all the rules we have here for our growers....they do NOT have most of those rules elsewhere. People need to buy a clue....plus cooking your own food CAN (depending upon your hygenic teachings) mean LESS health problems.
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But I washed them, and then half of them were simmered for a half hour, and then all of them were baked for a half hour. So that's a bit comforting.
I love green onions and will wash them more throughly, maybe i should always cook them.
By mid October there were cases already diagnosed. Did reports from KY and other states alert them to the possible source? If this was the case they responded responsibly by trying to eliminate one souce of possible contamination immediatly.
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