It has not been a good couple of weeks in terms of the number of people stricken with food-borne illnesses, even though the Taco Bell incident is officially over. There has been another E. coli outbreak, this time at an Indianapolis Olive Garden. Over 300 people, at least three of whom have been hospitalized, have been exhibiting the classic flu-like symptoms associated with E. coli, including "nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and in some cases fever." All of those afflicted ate that the restaurant (in the northwest part of the city) between December 9 and December 13.
It seems that the problem was first noticed after several employees became ill on Monday. The cause has not yet been identified, but the restaurant has been closed for the moment while an investigation is carried out.
It does seem likely that some kind of vegetable is the cause if previous outbreaks are any indication, but it is worth noting that there is no reason to suspect that this is related to either the spinach or scallion incidents.
12-17-2006 @12:21AM chef jay said... it is to be noted that the FDA never associatted the E-coli in taco hell to onions - it was more likey lettuce however not yet determened
as is this case most likely
there is a large number of farms that are using animal feterlizer and until steps are taken to limit farmers to using chemical/ non animal fertalizer or cooking the feterlizer ( i can smell it already) this problem is going to continue
or it is something that has always been going on and the media has blown this all out of proportion
you can decide
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12-16-2006 @9:09AM calamari said... While I think we're seeing increased coverage because it's fashionable to cover these incidents, I also suspect there were fewer of them for about 30 years, during the time when chemical fertilizers were "science making your life better" rather than something suspect.
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12-16-2006 @12:02PM Dr Electro said... Produce used in fast food restaurants comes in bags. The burger slingers/burrito rollers just dimp it out and use it as is. I am afraid of this stuff! It is usually brown and the lettuce tastes of rust. That is the reason I started ordering my burgers and tacos without lettuce and tomato.
At least at Subway you can see what you are getting. I still don't trust the lettuce, though.
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12-16-2006 @1:07PM Jessica said... I was hospitalized with an intense case of E. Coli six years ago, and I still spent all last summer in rural Nicaragua trying to convert farmers from harsh chemical fertilizers and pesticides back to manure-based fertilizer. There are definitely safe ways to use manure as fertilizer, and it doesn't pollute everyone's land and water the way the chemicals do.
Recent cases of E. Coli aside, I'll take manure-fertilized veggies over chemical-fertilized ones any day.
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12-16-2006 @4:57PM Kevin said... We can handle E. Coli produced by grass fed cows; E. Coli produced by corn fed cows can kill us. Even corn fed cows that are switched to grass a couple weeks before slaughter show reduced levels of dangerous E. Coli.
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12-17-2006 @10:27AM Renee Wilmeth said... Indianapolis media is now reporting that it looks like the cause is norovirus or another similar bug. What's odd is that this is more like a cruise ship infestation in a small restaturant setting. But they're thinking it wasn't directly foodbourne. (And due to the sheer numbers over a short time, I think they knew from the beginning it wasn't e.coli -- at least, it wasn't tossed around as an option up front because there was no direct pattern of salad, or other contamination among the sick.
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12-19-2006 @2:12PM David Gonzales said... As long as we continue to utilize surface waters to irrigate our crops we will continue to have problems with e. coli. It only makes sense that the food industry should be mandated to utilize some type of veggie wash prior to serving the public ready to eat vegetables
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