Salmonella Outbreak From Onions Worsens, Spreads To 43 States

An outbreak of Salmonella from red onions produced at a California farm has worsened, spreading from 30 states to 43 as potentially infected onions may still be getting used at restaurants ABC 6 reports.

The outbreak of disease has since spread from states like Idaho, South Dakota, North Dakota, Arizona, Virginia, Florida, Nebraska, Maine, Oregon and Utah to include eastern U.S. states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

The CDC revealed that 640 people have been sickened from the outbreak an 85 have been hospitalized, though none have died. It’s unclear why the outbreak has gotten worse, but the CDC did caution that restaurants and consumers needed to exercise caution, and if they couldn’t state where their onions were coming from, they needed to not consume them.

“If you don’t know where your onions are from, don’t eat, serve, or sell them or any food prepared with them,” the CDC said about restaurants, before adding for consumers that “If you can’t tell where your onions are from, don’t eat them. Throw them away.”

Infections have been reported in Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The red onions that are believed to be the source of the outbreak were from Thomson International, Inc., based in Bakersfield, California. As a precaution, red, white, yellow and sweet onions from the company were being recalled.

According to CBS 2 NY, some of the onions that were recalled were sold at stores including Walmart, Kroger, Fred Meyer, Publix, Giant Eagle, Food Lion and H-E-B, and several companies have recalled foods made with onions, including chicken salad, macaroni salad, fajita stir-fry, pizza and diced raw onions.