Idaho Onions Are Making People Cry More Than Usual

Unload your onions, shed your shallots, toss your tear makers... Onions from Idaho are linked to a salmonella outbreak that has gotten at least 650 people sick.

Actually, there seem to not be any shallots involved but a significant amount of red, yellow and white onions linked to a distributor called ProSource, Inc. in Hailey, Idaho have been a big part of a salmonella outbreak here in the United States that has made over 650 people sick, though there have been no deaths reported in the matter. According to Newser, ProSource claims that "The contaminated onions were imported from the State of Chihuahua in Mexico, and ProSource says they were imported from July 1 through Aug. 27".

Here's the thing, though... Onions are interesting because they don't go bad very quickly so it's very likely you may have onions in your pantry that have been chillin' for a month waiting to make their layered debut and they could be sitting there like a nasty fish with an umbrella (that's what I picture when people say salmonella, but I digress), ready to make you sick. Newser also noted that typically there isn't any indication of the origin of an onion, therefore everyone is encouraged to toss out any unlabeled onions just to be safe. So what are salmonella symptoms like? Well, Newser describes like this: "Salmonella symptoms most typically include diarrhea, vomiting, fever, stomach cramps, and dehydration, but can also include headaches, lethargy, rash, blood in urine, or blood in stool."

Besides, fresh onions are better anyway!