Investigation Update on Salmonella

CDC, several states, and FDA continue to investigate a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Newport infections linked to onions. More grocery stores and food manufacturers have recalled onions and food containing onions, and 244 more illnesses have been reported in the last week. An update is posted here: https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/newport-07-20/index.html.

Key points:

• If you don’t know where your onions are from, don’t eat, serve, or sell them or any food prepared with them.
• CDC is advising consumers, restaurants, and retailers not to eat, serve, or sell any onions from Thomson International, Inc., or food made with these onions. This advice applies to red, white, yellow, and sweet onions.
• Several companies have recalled onions and foods made with recalled onions, such as chicken salad, macaroni salad, fajita stir-fry, pizza, sub sandwiches, diced raw onions and peppers, and other salads. Check your homes for these recalled products and throw them away. Do not eat them or try to cook the onions or other food to make it safe.
• Some of the onions, chopped raw onion mixes, or prepared foods were sold at stores including Walmart, Kroger, Fred Meyer, Publix, Giant Eagle, Food Lion, and H-E-B, under a variety of brand names, including Taylor Farms and Marketside.
• Since our last update on July 31, 2020, an additional 244 ill people have been reported in this outbreak, including 15 from 10 new states: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, and West Virginia.
• A total of 640 ill people have now been reported from 43 states. 85 people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been reported.
• Links to recall information for this outbreak are available on the outbreak investigation notice.
• You can find a list of all food safety recall notices on foodsafety.gov.
• This investigation is ongoing. CDC will provide more information as it becomes available.

CDC advises people to take action if they have symptoms of a Salmonella infection:

• Talk to your healthcare provider.
• Write down what you ate in the week before you started to get sick.

• Report your illness to the health department. The health department will likely call you for an interview to ask you about foods you ate in the week before you got sick.
• Assist public health investigators by answering questions about your illness.

About Salmonella:

• Most people infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps 6 hours to 6 days after being exposed to the bacteria.
• The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and most people recover without treatment.
• In some people, the illness may be so severe that the patient is hospitalized. Salmonella infection may spread from the intestines to the bloodstream and then to other parts of the body.
• Children younger than 5, adults 65 and older, and people with weakened immune systems are more likely to have severe illness.

If you have questions about cases in a particular state, please call that state’s health department.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

CDC works 24/7 protecting America’s health, safety and security. Whether disease start at home or abroad, are curable or preventable, chronic or acute, or from human activity or deliberate attack, CDC responds to America’s most pressing health threats. CDC is headquartered in Atlanta and has experts located throughout the United States and the world.