The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration report that onions are the likely source of the McDonald’s E. co

How factory farms can contaminate onions with dangerous pathogens like E. coli

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2024-10-29 22:30:08

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration report that onions are the likely source of the McDonald’s E. coli outbreak that killed one person and sickened dozens more. 

The exact location where these onions, used in McDonald’s Quarter Pounders, were grown has not yet  been confirmed. But the affected onions, pulled off the market by McDonald’s and other fast food companies, were apparently supplied by a  California produce company’s Colorado processing facility. 

Factory farms can increase the likelihood of E. coli and other pathogens contaminating onions, and many other vegetables and fruits. That’s because dangerous bacteria, like E. coli, salmonella and giardia, commonly found in animal manure, can wash or drift with dust into irrigation waterways whose water is then sprayed on food crops such as onions.

Following the E. coli incident, EWG identified California onion fields near livestock facilities. In 2022, over 68,000 acres in California were planted with onions. Of those, 4,000 acres are within one mile of a factory farm, known as a concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO . The map below shows the proximity of some of these fields in the Imperial Valley.

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