In fight against outbreaks, green onions present layered resistance

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

[lelio]

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — While investigators work to pinpoint the cause of a western Pennsylvania hepatitis A outbreak that has killed three people and sickened more than 490, some food safety experts say green onions are particularly hard to keep clean.

Luke LaBorde, assistant professor of food science at Penn State University, said Friday that the way green onions are grown and eaten, even the structure of the onion itself, can make them particularly likely to transmit diseases like hepatitis A.

A study by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found that green onions were more likely to be contaminated with Shigella bacteria than many other vegetables. Shigella, like hepatitis A, is most often transmitted when contaminated fecal matter comes into contact with food and is eaten.

FDA spokeswoman Kimberly Rawlings said she didn't know of any studies that showed green onions were more likely to carry hepatitis A than other produce.

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.

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.

But other than cooking or washing food, little can be done to fight contamination, LaBorde said.

"A lot of people are working on ways to decontaminate food, but it's so tough," LaBorde said. "There are so many nooks and crannies. It's like looking in the Grand Canyon for a person. There's too many places for them to hide."

The hepatitis A outbreak in Beaver County is thought to be the nation's largest on record. The Chi-Chi's restaurant at the Beaver Valley Mall in Monaca has been shut down, and the restaurant chain removed green onions from kitchens at all its 100 locations, said Bill Zavertnik, chief operating officer of the Louisville, Ky.-based company.

In September, about 280 people in Georgia and Tennessee were sickened by contaminated green onions, including 210 people who ate at restaurants in the Atlanta area.

[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.