FDA Releases Report Highlighting Salmonella Newport Outbreak in Red Onions
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a report on its investigation of the Salmonella Newport outbreak that caused more than 1,600 reported illnesses in the U.S. and Canada between June and October 2020. The FDA worked with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state partners, and Canadian officials (Public Health Agency of Canada and Canadian Food Inspection Agency) to investigate the outbreak, which was linked through epidemiology and traceback to whole red onions supplied by Thomson International Inc., headquartered in Bakersfield, California (Southern San Joaquin Valley). The outbreak is the largest Salmonellafoodborne illness outbreak in over a decade. The report released includes an overview of the traceback investigation, subsequent on-site interviews, visual observations of the growing fields, environmental sampling, and various factors that potentially contributed to the contamination of red onions with Salmonella.
Although a conclusive root cause could not be identified, several potential contributing factors include: