Sludge Watch ==> Calif Central Valley lettuce cited Taco Bell Outbreak that sickened 71 last year

[Maureen Reilly]

Central Valley lettuce cited in eatery illness: Taco Bell outbreak sickened 
71 people late last year
10.feb.07
Gannett News Service
Brian Tumulty

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WASHINGTON - Food-related illness among patrons at Taco Bell restaurants in 
four states late last year has been linked to lettuce from California's 
Central Valley, a Food and Drug Administration spokesman announced Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 71 people 
became ill - 53 were hospitalized - as a result of eating at Taco Bell 
restaurants in New Jersey, New York, Delaware, and Pennsylvania between late 
November and mid-December. One of the illnesses was reported by a resident 
of a fifth state - South Carolina - who ate at a Taco Bell in Pennsylvania.

Eight of those affected developed Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, a form of 
kidney failure, according to CDC reports filed with the FDA.

The FDA announcement about where the infected Taco Bell lettuce originated 
places the source in the same general region as the lettuce that sickened 81 
people in the Midwest around the same time.

Those victims, including 26 who were hospitalized - two of whom developed 
Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome - ate at Taco John's restaurants in Iowa, 
Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to CDC reports filed with the FDA.

Taco John's, based in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Irvine-based Taco Bell, are 
unrelated restaurant chains. Taco Bell is owned by Yum! Brands Inc. 
headquartered in Louisville, Ky.

FDA officials announced in December that a DNA trace of the E. coli involved 
in the two outbreaks did not provide a match.

FDA spokesman Michael Herndon on Friday announced the origin of the infected 
lettuce served by Taco Bell.

The announcement came in response to a Gannett News Service story that 
referred to earlier news reports that the E. coli outbreak might have 
occurred from produce imported from Mexico.

Will Bortz, spokesman for Taco Bell, said, "We have never discussed who our 
suppliers are or where our products are grown."

A final FDA report on the Taco Bell E. coli outbreak is a month or more 
away, Herndon said.

Before then, the agency will issue a report on September's E. coli outbreak 
among about 200 people in 26 states who ate fresh spinach, Herndon said. 
That outbreak has been traced by the FDA to fields in Monterey and San 
Benito counties of California.

At a congressional hearing Thursday on food safety, lawmakers were told an 
estimate 325,000 Americans require hospitalization annually because of 
food-borne illnesses