E. Coli outbreak raises alarm among shoppers in US

An E. coli outbreak has raised alarm among shoppers in the United States just days before Thanksgiving, with more than a dozen brands of organic carrots recalled due to contamination concerns.

The carrots, all produced by Grimmway Farms, were sold under various brand names and distributed to retail centers nationwide, News.Az reports, citing CBS News.

As of now, there are 39 reported cases across 18 states, with one confirmed death and at least one person in Colorado falling ill. Consumers are being urged not to consume the affected products, which were shipped directly to stores across the United States.

"I mean it's part of a larger problem, right? When you de-regulate industries, when you make food safety not a priority," said one shopper Monday night in Denver.

Illness typically starts three to four days after ingesting the bacteria, but it can take up to 10 days to feel ill. The symptoms of E.coli poisoning include stomach cramps, diarrhea, excessive vomiting and a fever over 102 degrees. The carrots might be linked to an outbreak of E. coli O121:H19, which is a different strain from the one recently linked to onions in McDonald's products that made 104 people sick, killing one who lived in western Colorado.

"E. coli only comes from one place, and that's understandably human and animal feces. And so where is that found? It's found on the ground. It's found in the fields where these vegetables are grown," said Ron Simon an attorney who specializes in food safety.

Simon represents 61 people in the outbreak linked to McDonald's.

"What should have happened was both the onions and the carrots in this case should have been put through a sanitation procedure where they wash the vegetables, and they put them in a chlorine bath, and sometimes they irradiate them in order to kill all the bad bacteria and then, once that's done, they're supposed to test to see if those procedures got all the bacteria."

It stops nearly all cases from getting through to consumers, but if there are gaps or failures, contamination can end up on products in stores.

News.Az