Two studies funded by the Center for Produce Safety (CPS) aim to identify production practices that may contribute to Salmonella contamination of bulb onions and food safety control strategies for the commodity.
There is little available information about the behavior of Salmonella on dry bulb onions, which have a historic association with salmonellosis outbreaks, and are also the subject of a commodity-specific food safety prevention strategy that was recently released by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); for more information, listen to the recent Food Safety Matters podcast episode on FDA’s commodity-specific prevention strategies for produce. The goal of the two ongoing studies is to develop recommendations on onion crop management, harvesting, curing, storage, and distribution that will help industry minimize the risk of Salmonella contamination.