Why onions from Utah aren't being linked to the E. coli outbreak

SYRACUSE — Over one hundred million onions are packaged annually at Onions 52 in Syracuse. None of the onions there are being tied to the deadly E. coli outbreak at McDonald’s.

The CDC is now saying the outbreak came from fresh slivered onions, reportedly served on the quarter pounder burger, sickening 90 people in 13 states, including seven people in Utah.

On Thursday, the general manager for Onions 52 showed KSL TV their facility and how they avoid such outbreaks.

“We do swab verification on our cleaning to make sure that our cleaning process was actually done correctly,” said Cody Heiner, General Manager at Onions 52.

Another way they avoid outbreaks is onions there are shipped whole.

“We sell them as a whole dry bulb onion, we’re not doing any cutting, washing, or anything like that, so it takes a lot of the risk out,” Heiner said.

If there were issues, each onion batch is tagged, identifying where it was grown.

Local farmers supplying onions to Onions 52, like McFarland Family farms in Weber County, said their safety process starts before onions are ever planted.

“When we order that seed, we make sure that seed is cleared by all the food safety people, when we order the fertilizer, we make sure it’s the certified fertilizer,” said Kenny McFarland of McFarland Family Farms.

Each onion field also goes through rigorous testing.

“We’ll actually take a plant leaf and take it into a lab and run a test to make sure there’s no pathogens and there’s no E. coli of any kind,” McFarland said.

Every batch that passes is sorted, packaged, and shipped to big buyers nationwide. Each onion intact, they have shipments leaving their facility 52 weeks a year.

“There’s a lot of trust there, with the grower, and they’ve all been vetted and through the whole process. We’re not afraid to put our name on our onions that come from our local growers,” Heiner said.