Sludge Watch ==> TACO BELL - 66 with Ecoli O157 - produce suspected

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This Ecoli outbreak is widening.  Since Taco Bell cooks the beef twice (once before distribution to stores and again at the store) the produce like lettuce is more suspect as the source of contamination. With the Salinas Valley implicated in the spinach outbreak, and  the listeria outbreak there will be a great deal of political pressure to be vague about the source of the Taco Bell outbreak.....especially if it looks like produce from the Salinas Valley.  Remember they never did trace back those salmonella tomatoes that sickened 183 people in 21 states - and two from Canada - with tomatoes from 'restaurants'.  Hey guys...how is that trace back going?  What restaurants?  Where did the restaurants get their tomatoes?

Are we talking Salinas again?

  CDC report salmonella outbreak in tomatoes:


http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/salmonellosis_2006/outbreak_notice.htm
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

...................................................................................................................................

Taco Bell distribution center is scrutinized as more E. coli cases emerge
06.dec.06
N.Y. Times
By Anthony Depalma and Andrew Martin
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/nyregion/06coli.html



The investigation into an outbreak of food poisoning that has sickened at least 66 people in four states widened yesterday, as four additional cases of E. coli infection were reported in Pennsylvania and Connecticut as well as two more in New Jersey.
As the search continued for what was responsible for the largest E. coli outbreak in the region in several years, federal and state health investigators were cited as saying they were looking into a distribution center in Burlington Township, N.J., that delivers food to more than 1,100 Taco Bell restaurants and other fast food outlets in the Northeast. Investigators believe food at some of the Taco Bell restaurants had sickened some victims.
In Pennsylvania, three of the additional cases were linked to Taco Bell restaurants in Montgomery County, a suburb of Philadelphia.
Troy Thompson, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Health, was cited as saying the latest victims, who ranged in age from 11 to 20, became ill within the last month, and that two of them had been hospitalized but had been released.
In addition, federal officials said there were a number of additional cases in Connecticut, although it had not yet determined whether those people had eaten at Taco Bell.
But state health officials in the region insisted that the outbreak had been contained and that the most recent cases represented late notifications of the illness, not new incidences. The number of cases of infection could continue to rise as people come forward to report their illness.
As the number of people reportedly infected rose to 66 from 39 on Monday, the national president of Taco Bell, Greg Creed, was cited as saying that while the popular fast food chain had been implicated in the outbreak, its food has not yet been definitely identified as the cause, adding, "Neither the health department nor we know what caused it. Not everybody that got sick ate at Taco Bell."
Although a number of the people who were reported ill did not eat at Taco Bell, David Daigle, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was quoted as saying investigators were "comfortable" identifying Taco Bell as the source of the infected food.
It was not clear, however, whether it was produce like lettuce or cooked ingredients like ground beef that may have caused the infections. Still Taco Bell officials said the restaurants in question had thrown out all the food they had in stock.
Taco Bell reopened seven restaurants on Long Island that the company had closed for a day after they were linked to the outbreak. No one answered the telephone throughout the afternoon at an eighth, in Patchogue. The restaurant in South Plainfield, N.J., where 19 persons who were sickened ate in the weeks before and after Thanksgiving, remained closed as Taco Bell, working with public health authorities in Middlesex County, worked to sanitize all the fixtures, including utensils and cooking equipment.
As the investigations continued, one additional case - an adult who has been hospitalized for two weeks after eating at a Taco Bell in Seaford - was reported on Long Island yesterday. Of the 11 patients in Suffolk County, 9 have been released from the hospital, officials said. And in New Jersey, where two children had developed kidney damage, an 11-year-old boy was moved from intensive care to the pediatric unit at Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark.
Dr. Patricia Dillon, director of epidemiology and communicable diseases for Suffolk County, was cited as saying that for now, health authorities were focusing on the central food distributor rather than improper handling in the restaurants as the source of the contamination, adding, "You could not have improper handling occur at so many restaurants."
Taco Bell confirmed yesterday that all of the beef, lettuce and other ingredients prepared at the 1,100 Taco Bells in the Northeast came from the distribution center in South Jersey, which is operated by McLane Food Service of Carrollton, Tex.
Bart McKay, associate general counsel for McLane, was cited as saying that Taco Bell restaurants typically serve 5,000 to 7,000 customers a week, and that each one could receive two or three deliveries a week, and that its entire inventory could be replaced within a little more than a week.
That quick turnover is causing problems for medical investigators who are trying to find samples to test to determine what, if anything, in the restaurants might have caused the E coli infections.
Investigators will have to work their way back through purchase and delivery records to find the source of the food, officials said.
It could be a lengthy process, and one likely to raise more concerns about the apparent delay by officials in notifying the public of the outbreak.
Victor Bastardo, 34, who was eating at a Taco Bell in Yonkers Tuesday afternoon, was quoted as saying, "I find it weird that the health department waited one or two weeks. How could they do that, since people eat there with their kids?"
Under standard protocol for reporting disease in New York and New Jersey, confirmed cases of E. coli must be reported within 24 hours to local health authorities.
When the number of cases rises to an exceptional level, or if there are cases in neighboring counties, state health officials are notified, and they in turn notify surrounding states. Moreover, in the case of adjoining states, reports are sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is coordinating this investigation.



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.web.net/archives/sludgewatch-l/attachments/20061206/7786a4f0/attachment.htm