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American Morning

Food Safety

Aired November 25, 2003 - 08:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Dr. Sanjay Gupta's off today. In medical news this morning, though, the outbreak of hepatitis A in Pennsylvania has been traced by U.S. authorities to imported green onions. It is the latest example of a sharp rise in food-borne illnesses from produce.
Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen at the CNN Center for us this morning with some advice on how you can guard against food poisoning.

Elizabeth, good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

You know, when most people think of food-borne illness or food poisoning, they think of meat, but actually, produce is often the culprit. What happened at Chi-Chi's is green onions from Mexico have sickened more than 600 people and three people have died. This is the third outbreak in the United States recently. They were caused from green onions imported from Mexico. Already, in this outbreak, five lawsuits have been filed. And you may have noticed in restaurants, other restaurants, have signs up that say we don't use green onions anymore.

Now outbreaks from produce are nothing new. Let's go through some of the recent outbreaks over the years that have been caused by produce. In 1997, 256 people contracted hepatitis from strawberries. 1999, it was Norwalk Virus from lettuce. And in the year 2000, 400 cases of salmonella from cantaloupes. What happened with the cantaloupes was interesting. The pathogen was on the outside. When people cut it, the knife brought that salmonella down into the melon, because obviously, you don't eat the outside of a cantaloupe.

Well, what can you do? Well, if you're really worried about this you can just eat produce you have cooked thoroughly. Obviously, you're not going to cook all produce thoroughly. But if you have a certain kind of immune disorder, where you really want to be careful, cook everything thoroughly. Also, wash produce, even let's say, a cantaloupe, where you're not going to eat the rind, still important to wash it, and wash hands and utensils. That's not going to necessarily keep you away from all of the pathogens, but those are certainly good ways to start -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: But, Elizabeth, none of this produce should have any exposure to toxins. How are they linking the toxins to actual produce? COHEN: That's right, produce doesn't grow with these toxins in it, it becomes contaminated. It can become contaminated by someone who works at the restaurant where you ate the produce, the produce could become contaminated by a farm worker who has hepatitis, who touches it. Perhaps water that was used to irrigate the produce was -- had some hepatitis A in it. So there are various ways produce becomes contaminated, and some produce is just more vulnerable to others. For example, green onions, even though you can't see it, has little crevices that make hepatitis particles stick to it more efficiently.

O'BRIEN: So then is the government trying to say no green onions, people should no longer eat green onions, or is it just certain green onions from certain areas, or what's happening there?

COHEN: They haven't said that. There have been recommendations to cook green on onions. What they have done is they've told the FDA, who are at the border inspecting produce from Mexico, to not let green onions from certain companies in Mexico, and the Mexican government has actually shut down four green onion companies in their country.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right, Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning. Elizabeth. thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 25, 2003 - 08:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Dr. Sanjay Gupta's off today. In medical news this morning, though, the outbreak of hepatitis A in Pennsylvania has been traced by U.S. authorities to imported green onions. It is the latest example of a sharp rise in food-borne illnesses from produce.
Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen at the CNN Center for us this morning with some advice on how you can guard against food poisoning.

Elizabeth, good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

You know, when most people think of food-borne illness or food poisoning, they think of meat, but actually, produce is often the culprit. What happened at Chi-Chi's is green onions from Mexico have sickened more than 600 people and three people have died. This is the third outbreak in the United States recently. They were caused from green onions imported from Mexico. Already, in this outbreak, five lawsuits have been filed. And you may have noticed in restaurants, other restaurants, have signs up that say we don't use green onions anymore.

Now outbreaks from produce are nothing new. Let's go through some of the recent outbreaks over the years that have been caused by produce. In 1997, 256 people contracted hepatitis from strawberries. 1999, it was Norwalk Virus from lettuce. And in the year 2000, 400 cases of salmonella from cantaloupes. What happened with the cantaloupes was interesting. The pathogen was on the outside. When people cut it, the knife brought that salmonella down into the melon, because obviously, you don't eat the outside of a cantaloupe.

Well, what can you do? Well, if you're really worried about this you can just eat produce you have cooked thoroughly. Obviously, you're not going to cook all produce thoroughly. But if you have a certain kind of immune disorder, where you really want to be careful, cook everything thoroughly. Also, wash produce, even let's say, a cantaloupe, where you're not going to eat the rind, still important to wash it, and wash hands and utensils. That's not going to necessarily keep you away from all of the pathogens, but those are certainly good ways to start -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: But, Elizabeth, none of this produce should have any exposure to toxins. How are they linking the toxins to actual produce? COHEN: That's right, produce doesn't grow with these toxins in it, it becomes contaminated. It can become contaminated by someone who works at the restaurant where you ate the produce, the produce could become contaminated by a farm worker who has hepatitis, who touches it. Perhaps water that was used to irrigate the produce was -- had some hepatitis A in it. So there are various ways produce becomes contaminated, and some produce is just more vulnerable to others. For example, green onions, even though you can't see it, has little crevices that make hepatitis particles stick to it more efficiently.

O'BRIEN: So then is the government trying to say no green onions, people should no longer eat green onions, or is it just certain green onions from certain areas, or what's happening there?

COHEN: They haven't said that. There have been recommendations to cook green on onions. What they have done is they've told the FDA, who are at the border inspecting produce from Mexico, to not let green onions from certain companies in Mexico, and the Mexican government has actually shut down four green onion companies in their country.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right, Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning. Elizabeth. thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com