A recent episode of E. coli infection in Ontario belies the fact that onions are only rarely implicated in food-related disease outbreaks. As of June 2009, 8,471 infectious diseases outbreaks have been included in GIDEON. Onions were involved in only seven (0.08%) of these:

1983 – United States – Botulism – 28 – sauteed onions
1996 to 1997 – United States – Hepatitis A – 90 – green onions
1997 – United States – Cryptosporidiosis – 54 – green onions
1998 – United States – Hepatitis A – 43 – green onions
2003 – United States – Hepatitis A – 170 – green onions
2005 – Russia – Yersinia pseudotuberculosis – 33 – cabbage and onion salads.
2006 – United States – E. coli O157 – 99 – either green onions or shredded lettuce

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 at 9:30 pm and is filed under Epidemiology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.