TRIP

Taco Bell linked to October salmonella outbreak

Reuters Health News, 2012

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Yum Brand Inc's Taco Bell chain has been linked to a salmonella outbreak that sickened 68 people in 10 states late last year.
Taco Bell said in a statement on Wednesday that investigators found that some of the people who became ill ate at Taco Bell, while others did not.
"They believe that the problem likely occurred at the supplier level before it was delivered to any restaurant or food outlet.
We take food quality and safety very seriously," Taco Bell said, echoing information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's January 19 final report on the outbreak.
The cluster of illness from salmonella enteritidis infections is believed to have begun in mid-October and ended by the time CDC issued its final report.
The outbreak had an air of mystery about it because CDC's final report said it was linked to a Mexican-style fast-food chain identified only as "Restaurant A." Food Safety News was the first to identify Taco Bell as Restaurant A, citing a document from the Oklahoma State Department of Health's Acute Disease Service.
In 2006, CDC identified contaminated lettuce served by Taco Bell restaurants in the northeastern United States as the source of an outbreak of a virulent strain of E.
Four years later, CDC confirmed that Taco Bell was linked to two outbreaks of rare strains of salmonella that made at least 155 people sick in 21 states.
News of the 2011 outbreak comes as Taco Bell works to fully recover from a bogus, but ultimately sales-denting lawsuit over the contents of its seasoned ground beef.
CDC estimates that one in six people in the United States gets sick from eating contaminated food each year.
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