http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_345171223.htmlThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Monday it has not found E. coli in samples of green onions suspected of sickening hundreds of Taco Bell patrons and New York health officials said a reported link to the scallions last week was a lab error.
State testing did find E. coli bacteria on white onions taken from a Long Island Taco Bell, but it was not the strain involved in the outbreak that has made more than 300 people New Yorkers ill, state health officials said.
Dr. David Acheson, the chief medical officer at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition for the FDA, said testing found none of the bacteria in green onion samples that Taco Bell sent to an outside lab. The chain pulled the vegetable from its 5,800 restaurants based on that lab's preliminary finding of contamination.
"I can now report all the samples (for green onions) have been negative," Acheson said. "We were unable to confirm the preliminary positive results in the green onion that was reported last week."