Why Were Red Onions Contaminated with Salmonella? FDA May Know
In the 2020 Salmonella Newport outbreak linked to red onions, more than 1600 people were sickened in the U.S. and Canada, with 1,127 sickened in the United States alone. Red onions from Thomson International were the likely source of this outbreak, although the government could not identify a conclusive root source of the contamination. Why were red onions contaminated with Salmonella?
This was the largest Salmonella outbreak in over a decade in the United States. The FDA has released a report which may supply some answers about why this outbreak happened
So why were red onions contaminated with Salmonella bacteria? There were several potential contributing factors that may have caused the contamination. They include potentially contaminated source of irrigation water; sheep grazing on adjacent land; signs of animal intrusion, including scat and large flocks of birds; and food contact surfaces that had not been inspect