Official: Onions cleaned with tainted water

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ^ | 11/28/03 | Luis Fabregas

[Dane]

SAN DIEGO -- Mexican green onions under investigation by federal authorities were cleaned with contaminated water and packed in dirty ice, a top Mexican government official said Thursday.

Despite those violations, Mexican authorities have found no evidence the imported scallions -- grown at four different farms -- were tainted with the hepatitis A virus, said Javier Trujillo Arriaga, director of the Agriculture Department's division of health, safety and quality.

[Dane]

.

[Preech1]

Let me be the first to say this..."Don't drink the water..."

[mewzilla]

And don't eat the produce.

[AngrySpud]

" ... the water became stagnant after being in the tanks too long."

Geez, the ignorant and uneducated. Hepatitis virus doesn't "grow" or appear in stagnant water. It came from human contamination.

U.S. studies repeatedly show that 40+% of American male restaurant workers don't wash their hands after using the restroom. What do you think the percentage is regarding farm workers in a third world country?

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

Does thorough washing remove the danger?

[Zipporah]

Does thorough washing remove the danger?..Maybe with bleach. Oh don't we have to thank NAFTA for so many good things that have come across the border? Let's see tainted onions, illegal immigration, drugs, the list goes on.

[Pilsner]

Having been a (part time) farm worker in high school I can state 0% of produce pickers out in the field washed their hands after going. Our bathroom facilities consisted of a roll of toilet paper wedged under the seat of the truck.

[MinuteGal]

Yeah, sure, like we're gonna throw all our purchased fruits and veggies into the dishwasher and set the dial on "heavy wash". Give me a break.

All supermarkets and fruit stands should be required to have signs which clearly label the country of origin of the various stacks of produce. Then WE can determine if we want to buy USA-grown or third-world-grown items.

Or put warning labels on Mexican produce, "The Surgeon General has determined that these onions may be detrimental to your health".

Leni

[DefCon]

"...bathroom facilities consisted of a roll of
toilet paper wedged under the seat of the truck..."
- - -
Our operation was too poor to have toilet paper.
Let alone a truck.
We had to walk two miles back and forth to the field.
Barefoot.
In the snow.
And it was uphill in both directions.

[Dane]

Does thorough washing remove the danger?

With other vegetables probably yes.

Green onions are different since they have many delicate layers where the hepatitis A virus can hide. Other onions have tougher skins.

Also green onions are hand harvested, I guess to their delicate nature, while other onions can be mechanically harvested.

[1rudeboy]

Are you planning on blaming NAFTA for your personal problems?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Cook em.

[DefCon]

I think green onions are also pretty unique in that they
are one of the few vegetables that are regularly eaten raw
without first having a skin or outer layer removed
(celery, and tomatoes being a couple of others)
so any surface contamination is passed directly to the consumer.

[AF68]

Johnny Appleseed raging green crabapple trots BUMP.

[dougherty]

The water was responsible for Hepatitis A??? hahaha

A 'contaminated' worker somewhere is responsible for this, one that does not wash their hands after they go to the bathroom.

[winker]

AH! WHIZZING in the wash water again!

[SSN558]

Tainted water, I bet. One of the ways to cut the cost of fruits and vetagables is to pay the workers over the border wages.

Then we seek even more cost cutting measures such as not putting porta potties out near the field when the workers are picking. This would seemly be a problem with infected workers that don't have medical care relieving themselves in a food production environment. No to worry, they have a piece of paper that sez this is prohibited.

We don't need no stinking FDA, in Mexico.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Yesterday an article was posted that IMO was little more than a paid PR piece for a company that owns a green onion farm, Vegetales del Desierto. "In Mexico's onion fields, the work goes on," by The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Lillian Thomas

The "reporter" typed in, or copied the script provided, such things as, "the company follows all health regulations, is inspected every other week or so, and is scrupulous about sanitation.

"The company's packing plant, a few kilometers down the road, is immaculate. The crew of 64 there wear rubber boots, masks and hair nets. The entrances have shoe washer pads. The packing room is refrigerator cold, empty except for a conveyer machine that cuts and washes the onions, a large bin of ice, and boxes and paper for packing.. . .the water for washing and ice is never reused" [end excerpt]

Though Ms Thomas did type in that there was no way to verify every claim.

Now we hear about "stagnant" water left too long in "water tanks." Sure. See #4 above. Though IMO it does not always matter how many times hands are washed.

I posted excerpts from The International Water Management Institute, a non-profit scientific research organization specializing in water use in agriculture, web site. Untreated waste water from nearby communities' raw sewage is used extensively in fields throughout third world countries. I first became aware of the problem from a 1998 NYT article about Mexican field workers in ankle deep human-feces contaminated raw sewage from nearby communities. If I don't see a country of origin in the supermarket, I don't buy it.

Oh, and the promise by the corrupt government of Mexico to pay more attention -- pay is right. More inspections, more bribes for the government employees. IMO.

[Dane]

I think green onions are also pretty unique in that they are one of the few vegetables that are regularly eaten raw without first having a skin or outer layer removed (celery, and tomatoes being a couple of others)

You could also probably include carrots and cauliflower, but they can be easily washed, unlike green onions.

[afz400]

"AH! WHIZZING in the wash water again!"
Don't you know we're supposed to love the diversity of ideas that these disgusting Mexicans are infesting our country with - like p*ssing on the sidewalks in front of 7-11s while they're waiting for the rich home builders to pick them up so they can rob decent Americans of jobs?