By James Andrews
| December 27, 2013
10. E. coli O157:H7 from Glass Onion
chicken salads, 33 sick. Trader
Joe’s customers in four states fell ill after eating one of two pre-made salad
products from Glass Onion Catering: the Field Fresh Chopped Salad with Grilled
Chicken or the Mexicali Salad with Chili Lime Chicken. At least seven people
were hospitalized, with two developing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a
kidney disease associated with severe E. coli infections. [CDC outbreak information]
9. Salmonella from Hacienda Don
Villo in Channahon, IL, 35 sick.
Health investigators traced 35 Salmonella illnesses back to this Mexican
restaurant in Grundy County, but they could never pinpoint the exact food
source. At least one person was hospitalized, and one employee was among those
who tested positive for Salmonella. [News report]
8. E. coli O121 from frozen Farm
Rich foods, 35 sick. Prompting a large recall of frozen
mini pizza slices, cheeseburgers and quesadillas, this outbreak sickened
predominantly minors across 19 states. Of those confirmed ill, 82 percent were
21 years of age or younger. Nine were hospitalized. The company recalled all
products created at one Georgia plant between June 2011 and March 2013. [CDC outbreak information]
7. Salmonella from imported
cucumbers, 84 sick. Investigators eventually traced this
outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul back to cucumbers imported from Mexico. Of
those confirmed ill, 17 were hospitalized. The importers were barred from
bringing more products into the U.S. until they could prove the products were
not contaminated. [CDC outbreak information]
6. E. coli O157:H7 from Federico’s
Mexican Restaurant in Litchfield Park, AZ, 94 sick. Investigators have implicated lettuce served at the
restaurant as the likely source of the E. coli, but no other restaurants in the
area had cases connected to them. The lettuce may have been cross-contaminated
from another food at the restaurant, or the restaurant may have received a
highly contaminated batch. Two victims developed HUS as a result of their
infections. [News report]
5. Salmonella from Foster Farms
chicken, 134 sick. The first of two Foster Farms
outbreaks in 2013 hit Washington and Oregon the hardest, but then spread
out across 13 states. At least 33 people were hospitalized, with infections
likely resulting from cross-contamination or undercooking of highly
contaminated raw chicken. Foster Farms has not issued a recall for either of
the two major outbreaks caused by chicken it produced this year. [CDC outbreak information]
4. Hepatitis A from Townsend Farms
frozen organic berries, 162 sick. At
least 71 people were hospitalized after eating an organic berry mix purchased
at Costco stores in the Southwest. The exact source of the outbreak was
eventually traced back to pomegranate seeds from Turkey which were contained
within the mix. [CDC outbreak information]
3. Salmonella from dining at Firefly
restaurant in Las Vegas, NV, 294 sick. Patrons
of this popular Las Vegas tapas restaurant fell ill after dining within a
five-day stretch in April. The owners ultimately closed up shop and re-opened
the restaurant in a new location. [News report]
2. Salmonella from Foster Farms
chicken, 416 sick. While this outbreak appears to be
ongoing, hundreds of individuals have fallen ill over the course of the year in
connection with raw chicken processed at Foster Farms facilities in California.
At least 162 people have been hospitalized after likely undercooking the
contaminated raw chicken or handling it in a way that lead to accidental
cross-contamination. Foster Farms has refused to issue a recall, and cases
continue to appear as recently as early December. [CDC outbreak information]
1. Cyclospora from salads and
cilantro, 631 sick. The outbreak of this foodborne
parasite also takes the title for most confusing, as it appeared to be two
separate Cyclospora outbreaks working in tandem. One set of patients – predominantly
from Iowa and Nebraska – clearly appeared to be connected to Olive Garden and
Red Lobster restaurants (both owned by Darden Restaurants), while, just weeks
later, patients in Texas began cropping up with no apparent connection to those
restaurants. The Darden illnesses were tentatively traced to lettuce supplier
Taylor Farms de Mexico, but no contamination could be found at the farms.
Meanwhile, many of the Texas illnesses seemed to implicate fresh cilantro grown
in Puebla, Mexico. [CDC outbreak information]
-Naim KHALID
© Food Safety News
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