Taco Bell's green onions off menu

Taco Bell's green onions off menu
Taco Bell is having to listen to unpleasant music as reports of an E. coli outbreak and repercussions of contaminated green onions are flooding in from several customers who ate at Taco Bell outlets. Over a 100 people have reportedly fallen ill, causing Taco Bell to remove green onions from all of its 5,800 restaurants in North America.

Although investigations have identified a Californian farm as the start of the chain from where these onions go through a long process before reaching a customer's plate, they are unsure where the contamination occurred. Expert on food safety Michael Pollan, states that such contamination is no surprise considering the shift in US agriculture toward an intensive industrial process.

He points out that the problem probably begins when cattle is not allowed to feed on natural pastures but given corn and other foods in restricted areas. Often there are chances that cattle waste mixes with irrigation water to eventually reach crops. He goes so far as to compare some farms to 'petri dishes' where various types of bacteria and other harmful microorganisms can multiply and prosper.

It does not help Boskovich Farms in Oxnard, Calif., where Taco Bells' green onions are grown that this very farm was the source of green onions associated with a hepatitis outbreak in Pennsylvania in 2003. From the farm, the onions travel by road several days to reach Ready Pac's vegetable processing plant in New Jersey. Mr. Dickstein, Vice-President marketing for Ready Pac, while emphasizing the safety of their technique, points out that the onions in a chlorine solution to kill contaminants, on a conveyor belt. There is no human skin contact allowed,” he emphasizes, and states that rubber gloves, boots and face masks are worn by workers.

After the process of washing, cutting and packing, the onions are shipped to McLane distribution centers, from where they eventually reach the thousands of Tack Bell kitchens.

Irrespective of how this controversy is eventually sorted out, Douglas Powell, food-safety professor at Kansas State University points out that green onions have caused 9 similar diseases in the past 12 years. This vegetable, also known as scallions, if contaminated any stage of growth becomes very difficult to cleanse later. The solution, he states, lies at monitoring the grass-root level, literally.