Three Salmonella Onion Lawsuits Pending
Onions are once again at the center of a nation-wide salmonella outbreak that is leaving victims sick for weeks and hospitalizing at least 15, so far. Many more are expected to be identified as the investigation unfolds.
[Meanwhile, two lawsuits have been filed in California in response to an outbreak of E. coli at a Mexican restaurant, Miguel’s Cocina].
The national food poisoning lawyer who filed both of the Miguel’s e. col lawsuits also happens to be the lead attorney in a large number of the onion salmonella lawsuits filed in 2020, 2021, and 2022. Ron Simon has also been retained in this outbreak, and noted:
“we have a great deal of work to do to make sure that consumers are safe, with three major onion salmonella lawsuits working towards that end. My firm is using this litigation to pursue the truth, so that consumers can be protected from what seems to be a revolving door of onions and salmonella illness. “
Why do Onions Seem to Carry Salmonella?
Why Onions? According to some food safety experts, the reason that are commonly related to outbreaks has to do with how they are grown and harvested. While they are not the MOST susceptible – cilantro and sprouts are even worse, as are strawberries – the humidity and their proximity to the ground during harvest are contributing factors. According to Robert T. Schooley, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of California at San Diego, “they were usually contaminated in the fields where they were grown downstream from animal or human waste or the bacteria made it into food during handling by a food worker or a restaurant worker who was carrying salmonella in their GI tracts.”
Salmonella is a bacteria that comes in over 2200 strains, or serotypes, a dozen of which are common in human outbreaks of salmonellosis.
The Current Onion Salmonella Outbreak:
This particular onion outbreak is also distinct form the two previous onion outbreaks of 2020 and 2021, as the onions are pre-cut/diced and sold in plastic containers. The culprit, Gills Onions are sold out of California, were widely distributed, especially in the Western half of the United States. Because these are prepackaged, it is difficult to tell if the salmonella was on the raw onions or if it was introduced into the packaging process by a sick employee or other failure in good manufacturing processes (GMPs).
Ron Simon anticipates filing another set of onion salmonella lawsuits in the coming weeks.
