Taco Bell might be at center of salmonella outbreak
According to a report in The Oregonian newspaper, fast food restaurant Taco Bell has been implicated in an outbreak of two rare strains of salmonella bacteria that has sickened more than 150 people across the United States, including in Kentucky and Indiana.
The report cited William Keene, senior epidemiologist with Oregon Public Health, who speculated that some food — lettuce, tomatoes or both — carried the Salmonella Hartford and Salmonella Baildon strains.
In the Aug. 5 report, Keene said the outbreak isn’t severe enough for officials to warn people to stop eating at Taco Bell, which is a division of Louisville-based Yum! Brands Inc.
Officials with Irvine, Calif.-based Taco Bell could not immediately be reached for comment.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control issued an advisory about the outbreak, but did not refer to Taco Bell specifically. The warning states that there have been cases of salmonella linked to “Mexican-style fast food Restaurant Chain A.”
CDC officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Click here to see the full CDC report.
According to the CDC report, there were 80 identified cases of Salmonella Baildon and 75 cases of Salmonella Hartford, linked to the Mexican-style restaurant as of Aug. 1. The nationwide cases began this spring and peaked in early June, according to the CDC.
In Kentucky, there were 23 reported cases of Salmonella Hartford and five reported cases of Salmonella Baildon. In Indiana, there were 11 cases of Salmonella Hartford and four cases of Salmonella Baildon. No deaths were reported with either strain.
Gwenda Bond, assistant communications director for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, declined to identify the restaurant that the cases are linked to.
She said Kentucky health officials would not disclose the name of the restaurant chain unless the CDC decides to reveal it because there is “not so much of an ongoing threat” and releasing the name of the chain would be of “limited benefit” to consumers.
“There definitely has been a high correlation” between the outbreak and the Mexican-style restaurant identified by the CDC, she said, but “it hasn’t been linked to 100 percent of the cases.”
Dr. Kraig Humbaugh, director of the division of epidemiology and health planning for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, said that 19 of the 30 Hartford and Baildon cases that have been reported in Kentucky since the outbreak began have been traced back to the Mexican-style restaurant chain, which he also declined to identify.
Many of the cases were in Madison county Kentucky and in areas around Lexington, Humbaugh said. Only a few cases were in the state’s North Central region, which includes Louisville.
Bond added that in the cases that have been linked to the Mexican-style restaurant chain, the tainted items have not been determined.
“That’s always difficult to determine because in a case like this, the food items don’t tend to hang around for too long,” Bond said.
Food samples were tested at one of the restaurants that were linked to the outbreak, but those tests were negative for salmonella, Humbaugh said.
It takes about two weeks from the time symptoms are presented to the time cases can be confirmed through laboratory testing, so it often is difficult to test food sources because tainted perishable food item supplies often have been used and replaced, Humbaugh said.
He added that U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials are examining the supply chain of the restaurant chain in an attempt to pinpoint the origin of the salmonella.
FDA officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
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