List of Foodborne Illness Outbreaks in The United States - 2006

2006

• E. coli O157:H7 from Taco Bell in South Plainfield, New Jersey and Long Island. 39 people in central New Jersey and on Long Island were sickened and suffered from hemolytic uremic syndrome. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at first believed the E. coli O157:H7 to be in the green onions. The FDA on December 13, 2006 said it could not confirm that scallions were the cause of the problem, as previously suspected, and that it was not ruling out any food as a possible culprit. It was later suspected that infected lettuce was the cause. Even though the culprit turned out to be a produce other than green onions, Taco Bell, in a public relations disaster, fingered a California-based green onion supplier as the source of the E. coli and then eliminated all green onions from its menu (while still serving lettuce). As a result, a lawsuit is currently pending against Taco Bell.
• 2006 North American E. coli outbreak. E. coli O157:H7 in bagged spinach packaged by Natural Selection Foods and most likely supplied by Earthbound Farm in San Juan Bautista. 3 dead, and 198 people reported sickened by the outbreak across 25 US States, and 1 person reported sickened by the outbreak in Ontario.