IE. coli contamination of vegetables is more difficult to control than beef, experts say
A move by US fast-food chains to temporarily pull fresh onions from their menus on Thursday, after the vegetable was named as a possible source of an outbreak of E. coli at McDonald's, revealed an ongoing nightmare for restaurants: Produce is a big problem. so that restaurants end up being less contaminated than beef.
Onions may be the cause of a McDonald's E. coli outbreak across the US Midwest and some western states that has sickened 75 people, including 49, and killed one. The world's largest burger chain has temporarily suspended the Quarter Pounder at five of its 14,000 US restaurants that were affected, the company said Wednesday.
Of the 61 people who had information about them, 22 were hospitalized, and two developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious condition that can cause kidney failure, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday.
Years ago, beef patties dominated the docks of lawyers facing foodborne illness lawsuits, before US health regulators clamped down on the contamination of beef after an outbreak of E. coli linked to Jack in the Box burgers has killed more than 170 people across the country. and they killed four. As a result, outbreaks linked to beef have become extremely rare, experts say.
“Manufacturing is a very difficult problem,” said Mike Taylor, an attorney who played a leadership role in food safety efforts at the FDA and the US Department of Agriculture, and is now on the board of the nonprofit STOP Foodborne Illness.
Experts say the main difference is that beef is cooked while fresh produce, by definition, is not. Proper cooking is a “silver bullet” against contamination, said Donald Schaffner, a food science and safety expert at Rutgers University.
Large-scale industrial products are washed, cleaned and tested to the same standard as beef, but the tests can't catch low enough levels of contamination, experts say.
Crops are often grown outdoors, where feces from nearby wildlife or domestic animals can enter irrigation water or stormwater. IE. coli is a common pathogen in the intestinal tract of animals. Cattle have more of it than others, but it is also seen in geese, pigs, deer and others, said food safety expert Mr. Mansour Samadpour.
Contamination can come from using unwashed manure or contaminated irrigation water, or from handling or cutting onions that are already infected, Schaffner said.
Samadpour, chief executive of IEH Laboratories and Consulting Group, which was hired by Chipotle to overhaul its food safety program after a series of contamination incidents in the mid-2010s, said US Department of Agriculture officials insisted on stricter testing of beef. “We went from returning one or two cows a month to another period of returning every year or three,” he said.
The same rigorous testing is used in manufacturing, and fast food chains and other consumers often require it. But the test doesn't get everything. To clean the product, it becomes difficult to see, says Samadpour.
Strict regulations
Both McDonald's and Taylor Farms, suppliers of yellow onions to McDonald's in the affected states, are large and complex companies, widely regarded by food safety experts as authorities on safety practices.
McDonald's suppliers tested the product repeatedly and did so in the range of days given by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the outbreak, and none of them identified this type of E. coli, company spokespeople said.
Wendy's pulled lettuce from restaurants in several states in 2022 after the CDC suspected it was the source of an outbreak of E. coli that sickened the masses.
In 2006, lettuce from Taco Bell was identified as a possible source of an outbreak of E. coli that sickened 71 people. Taco Bell is currently owned by Yum Brands. Contamination can go beyond bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella. McDonald's previously faced a parasitic outbreak in 2018 linked to nearly 400 sick salads.
The US Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 required the FDA to establish standards for the safe production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables. The FDA is introducing regulations for farm products that were previously not subject to many regulations, Rutgers' Schaffner said.
“Usually the pattern is we have a public health problem or a food safety problem, and eventually Congress will respond and we'll have regulations,” he said.
When there is a salmonella outbreak, scientists perform genetic sequencing on bacterial samples from infected patients and bacteria from contaminated food products. If there is a match, it can help find the source of the foodborne illness. Correction: An earlier article in the video suggested that a BC Center for Disease Control lab had found a salmonella outbreak linked to cantaloupe. In fact, the BCCDC was part of several labs to track the outbreak.
Taylor, a former FDA official, said that while beef contamination was gradually resolved through federal legislation, improving product safety is best left to consumers, such as McDonald's and other fast food chains.
He said he believes fast food and grocery stores, as major buyers of produce, can “modernize and adapt” to the standards they expect from suppliers. The product market is fragmented and fragmented.
“The only thing that can destroy bacteria is radiation – but no one wants it,” said food safety expert Samadpour, adding that it is not possible due to the volume of products sold. In addition, for many people radiation carries an “ick factor” when it is used in food, he said.
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