Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY -- An E- coli outbreak linked to Taco Bell restaurants may have sickened a Utah man.
The outbreak has left more than four dozen people sick in at least three states in the Northeast.
Federal health officials announced today there are two more suspected cases linked to the outbreak in Utah and South Carolina.
Susan Mottice with the Utah Department of Health says the Utahn suspected of having E- coli travels extensively throughout the West and ate at multiple restaurants.
She says there are many different strains of E- coli and a molecular analysis is being done to determine if the Utah case is from the same strain as the other cases. That analysis should be completed by Tuesday.
California based Boskovich Farms supplies Taco Bell with scallions and says that even though it has not been contacted by health officials owners are working with the fast food chain to determine if the onions are the source of the outbreak.
Taco Bell ordered the removal of green onions from its five-thousand-800 restaurants nationwide after testing by an independent lab suggested the bacteria may have come from scallions.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)