Dozens sickened with salmonella from tainted onions

Dozens of people in 22 states have been sickened in a salmonella outbreak that federal health authorities have linked to bagged, precut onions, produced by California-based Gills Onions that were also sent to Washington state.

The Food and Drug Administration warned late Monday that specific lots of onions and prepackaged vegetables should not be eaten and instead should be destroyed or thrown away.

The recalled onions are already past their “sell by” dates, the FDA said in its recall notice, but noted that some of the sickened individuals may have kept them in their freezers.

The recall was initiated voluntarily, the company said.

“Food safety and public health are our priorities, so the company initiated the recall after the … (FDA) notified it that the recalled products were part of the agency’s traceback investigation into an ongoing Salmonella Thompson outbreak,” stated a news release on the Gills Onions website.

The recalled foods include bagged, precut diced yellow onions, bagged celery and onion combinations, and a vegetable mix known as mirepoix.

The recalled products were sent to Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, according to the FDA.

The CDC, in its Tuesday food safety alert, said the salmonella outbreak caused 73 illnesses in 22 states, including 15 hospitalizations.

The recall comes nearly two months after the bulk of illnesses were reported, according to FDA data.

The delay is the result of a lengthy investigation process by local public health departments and the CDC, said Bill Marler, a food safety lawyer.

“By the time the FDA investigators are getting out to the packing houses and the farms to do testing, to try to figure out why the outbreak happened, it’s kind of too late,” Marler said.

“It doesn’t really help being able to figure out what to do to prevent the next outbreak.”

The salmonella outbreak is the third caused by onions in the last three years.

In 2022, an onion-caused outbreak caused 1,040 illnesses and 260 hospitalizations, according to CDC data. In 2020, 1,127 people were infected across 48 states, including 167 hospitalizations.