7 ms·
Salmonella outbreak linked to onions in 43 US states
- squeezingswirls 6y agohttps://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/newport-07-20/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/newport-07-20/index.html
- lisper 6y agohttps://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety-alerts/thomson-international-inc-conducts-voluntary-recall-red-yellow-white-and-sweet-yellow-onions-because https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-withdrawals-safety...
- jeffbee 6y agoI love how these onions are sold under fifty different fictitious brands, many of which are using highly misleading labeling and packaging. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but it seem dishonest to sell California onions in a bag that prominently announces "UTAH ONIONS" and doesn't say "California" on it anywhere.
- notavegan 6y agoThere would be no outbreak if farmers didn't use animal manure to fertilize their vegetable crops. That's the real source of salmonella.
- goalieca 6y agoAs a layman, it would seem more desirable to use pasteurized manure than petrochemical based fertilizers.
- nkingsy 6y agoAs long as the animals are making the poop it makes sense to use it. Has organic fertilizer usage had an impact on the bottom line for the companies making the poop?
- Exmoor 6y agoIs this based on anything other than an gut distrust of "chemicals"? I am, admittedly, a layman as well, but my understanding is that fertilizers are essentially distillations of the important elements (Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphate) which you would get from manure, but without the risk of food poisoning.
- abakker 6y agoThere are other minerals in manure. Basic multivitamins and active bacteria besides salmonella benefit the soil.
- maxerickson 6y agoIt's a good way to dispose of the manure. It's beneficial to the soil and pretty much any other disposal will cost more than spreading it on fields. Chemical fertilizer is used because it increases yields well beyond crop rotation (and because minerals are depleted over time).
- dtech 6y agoAs long as we have cattle we will have manure anyway. Might as well use it beneficially, also because disposing of the rest is already hard enough.
- rumanator 6y agoWhat alternative do you suggest?
- jhauris 6y agoI'd be really interested in information sources of salmonella; I understand a lot of fertilizer is cooked to kill pathogens, and that salmonella also comes from rat feces in warehouses. If you have any sources on this, please post them.
- ganafagol 6y agoWhat alternative do you propose? Petrochemical products are no sustainable alternative. The real source of salmonella in the U.S. is the lack of a strategy to eradicate it. Many countries have, where you can eat raw eggs any day without problem. Once a chicken farm gets an outbreak, you burn it down, that's it. Sounds drastic? Well, then that's the choice you make and will have to live with salmonella.
- rsynnott 6y agoWell, you don’t burn it down, but it’s bad news for the chickens, certainly. And the practical approach is normally keeping bacterial load low via vaccination, hygiene, culling etc., rather than total eradication. I live in one of the ‘raw eggs are basically safe now’ countries; a government study in Ireland involving testing 5000 eggs about 10 years ago found no salmonella in egg contents, but did find it on two shells. I still don’t trust raw or undercooked eggs, though; I was at an impressionable age when the last major outbreak happened in the early 90s.
- ljm 6y agoOr if farmers cared about animal welfare and improved the conditions for them instead of creating this situation where animals and products have to be constantly medicated or washed to make them fit for consumption. You know, maybe money isn't the singular most important thing? As much as the US believes it is.
- btilly 6y agoThere would also be no outbreak if farmers immunized their animals against salmonella. See https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23165-us-should-vaccinate-poultry-to-stop-killer-salmonella/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23165-us-should-vacci... for more.
- seiferteric 6y agoDo you know for sure? My father was in the ag business in the Salinas valley and he always suggested it was either wild pigs shitting in the fields or migrant workers not given proper or enough "porta potties" so they go in the ditches sometimes.
- ectoplasmaboiii 6y agoAnd the UK govt wants to lower its food standards to do a trade deal with the states :) (No offence to any american friends. I love your country, but your food has some problems.)
- ganafagol 6y ago"Give me freedom or give me death" is the motto I think.
- ralph84 6y agoThe country famous for BSE is in a bit of a glass house when it comes to farming practices.
- ectoplasmaboiii 6y agoSure, we're not great. But it blows my mind that you would ever want to _lower_ the quality of the food you are eating.
- oh_sigh 6y agoIt wouldn't make sense in a world with infinite and free food, but that is not the world we live in.
- ogogmad 6y agoAre you implying that the UK won't have enough food to feed itself post-Brexit, to the extent that it would need to import food from the US? I thought that the problem was that the US might insist on relaxing food safety regulations as part of a larger trade deal package. Do correct me if I'm wrong.
- oh_sigh 6y agoThe question isn't the quantity of food, but the cost of food. There can be food aplenty, but if poor people need to spend a large amount of their income to acquire it, there will be a benefit to having a wider sourcing of cheaper food.
- syntaxing 6y agoPlanet money had a really good episode about the romaine salmonella outbreak. The problem was that the water supply was tainted because it would go through protected federal land and the feces of the animal grazing on the land would get into the water supply. I wonder if this is the case for the onions.
- reeealloc 6y agoWhy can't this salmonella be cooked out safely?
- xboxnolifes 6y agoYou don't always cook onions.
- tzs 6y agoThree weeks ago I bought a red onion. I have no idea if it was one of the affected brands. I have been eating it ever since, nearly every day, mostly raw on sandwiches. I've consumed maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of it. Question: can I infer from not getting sick yet that my onion is not one of the contaminated ones? Or does the way this works is that only parts of the onion are contaminated, and it is possible that by chance I simply haven't gotten to the contaminated part and I should discard this thing?