Texas has the most illnesses, followed by Oklahoma, but nation-wide Salmonella Lawsuits are beginning to pile up for the importers, restaurants, and grocery outlets who sold the tainted onions.
According to WEBMD, an authoritative source for medical information and advice, fresh red, white and yellow onions have been linked to a national salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds in at least 38 states. According to the latest CDC report, issues in mid-November of 2021, nearly 900 victims have been identified. The victims range in age from under one year of age to more than ninety-seven years of age, and are nearly 60% female. The CDC has identified nearly two-hundred hospitalizations amongst the victims. One early case became symptomatic on June 1st, followed by onsets in victims on or about June 15th and 30th. There was then a lull in onset for nearly a month, with the onslaught of cases on-setting between August 1st and October 22nd.
Texas has the most number of identified victims, with a number of pending salmonella lawsuits that are only likely to increase in a state with between 120 and 185 confirmed cases, the most in the nation. Oklahoma is close behind with more than a hundred illnesses likely due to the onion salmonella outbreak. Missouri, Illinois, Virginia and Maryland follow with about 60 identified cases each.
Where are the Contaminated Onions From?
The onions are believed to have been imported from Chihuahua, Mexico, and distributed widely. At least two of the companies that imported the onions, Keeler Family Farms and ProSource Produce, have been identified. They later distributed the onions widely under such names/brands as Big Bull, Peak Fresh Produce, Markon (both “Essentials” and “First Crop”), Sierra Madre, Rio Blue and Rio Valley, ProSource, and Sysco Imperial. Other possible brands include some Green Giant Fresh, Pier-C Produce, and Alsum Farms & Produce. HelloFresh and EveryPlate, two meal preparation kit companies, noted the inclusion of potentially contaminated onions in their products, distributed between July 7th and September 8th, 2021.
NOTE: “Health department representatives will ask what you ate in the week before you started to get sick, so if you start feeling like you might have salmonella, it’s a good idea to start making a list of the foods you’ve eaten during that time frame so that key information is readily available,”
Jolianne Stone, MPH, state epidemiologist
While 75% pf the victims self-report eating raw onions and the dishes that contain raw onions, at least 20 outbreak illness clusters have also been identified, often linked to a single restaurant that used the tainted onions. In one case, a restaurant stored the onions and cilantro together, and the cilantro is believed to have become contaminated as well. That restaurant had procured ProSource onions.
The CDC has stated: “If you can’t tell where the onions are from, don’t buy or eat them … Wash surfaces and containers these onions may have touched using hot soapy water or a dishwasher.” The CDC also acknowledged, however, that the outbreak would be difficult to contain quickly as these onions have a three month shelf life, and foods made with these onions can also be frozen for eating later. Freezing does not kill salmonella bacteria.
According to one of the national salmonella lawyers who has been filing lawsuits on behalf of the salmonella victims in this outbreak, “the very nature of this sort of outbreak makes it hard to contain. The product at issue here, salmonella tainted onions, is so widely used and distributed. Only a small amount of salmonella from a contaminated cutting board, or some salsa, can go on to contaminate other foods and dishes. In addition, even when onions were identified, so few people focus on the brand of onions of where they are sourced. So many people have been contacting us to pursue a salmonella onion lawsuit. When we decide to file a salmonella lawsuit for these victims, one of the first things we have to do is trace the person’s eating habits to a source that received the contaminated onions. Sometimes this is a challenge, but that is why we are the nation’s leading salmonella law firm.”
What Type of Salmonella Contaminated the Onions?
With more than 2200 strains (or serotypes) of salmonella in circulation, is it important which one contaminated the fresh onions in this outbreak? First off, Salmonella Oranienburg is commonly transmitted to food from both domestic and wild animals, and soil. And while Salmonella Oranienburg is not known to be the most common serotype of salmonella, in 1981 and 1982, Salmonella Oranienburg was identified in pepper in Norway. There were 126 identified victims! In 1998, another 100 – plus victims were sickened with Salmonella Oranienburg in Australia after ingesting gelato. In 1999, Japan identified over 1600 Salmonella Oranienburg victims who had consumed dried squid. In 2005 it was alfalfa sprouts in Australia and in 2006 fruit salad in the US and Canada. In recent years, in the US, both eggs and Chai seeds have been found to contain Salmonella Oranienburg. It is, however, sufficiently rare so that when it pops up in epidemiology screens too often, health agencies immediately launches an investigation.
In this outbreak, that is precisely what happened. Hundreds became ill of a single strain of salmonella, Salmonella Oranienburg, and further testing was done to see if these people were part of the same outbreak. It turns out, under further review, they were. In addition to looking at the serotype, investigators also looked at the genetic makeup (muck like a rape kit) to determine if the outbreak has a single origin.
This outbreak of Salmonella Oranienburg is noted for its susceptibility to most traditional antibiotics used for non-typhodal salmonella, such as amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, ampicillin, cefoxitin, and ceftriaxone, gentamicin, streptomycin, sulfamethoxazole, and tetracycline. A very small handful of the samples tested showed some resistance to one or more of these. In addition, this Salmonella Oranienburg outbreak has a hospitalization rate of about 31% of identified victims.
Unfortunately, the CDC only manages to capture (identify) a small number of the actual victims in most outbreaks, with as many as 20 or 30 unidentified victims for each one identified by the health agency.
