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 A U.S. Food and Drug Administration laboratory analysis did not
confirm the presence of E. coli in a sample of celery and onion mix
collected from a Costco store in Montana, the agency said on
Tuesday.
The incident is the latest occurrence of E. coli where the source of
the outbreak is unknown. Health officials have still not found the
cause of an E. coli outbreak at restaurants owned by Chipotle
Mexican Grill Inc in nine states.
In the Costco outbreak, the celery and onion mix was made by Taylor
Farms for use in the salad.
In November, Taylor Farms Pacific Inc voluntarily recalled 71
products sold at retailers such as Safeway and Wal-Mart Stores Inc
citing "an abundance of caution" due to the mix testing positive for
E. coli in a sample taken by the Montana Department of Health.
The state performed a rapid preliminary test and then sent a partial
sample of the celery and onion mix to the FDA, which performed a
more accurate test that involves growing a colony of the bacteria.
Fourteen of 16 people bought or ate rotisserie chicken salad from
Costco in the week before the illness started.
Costco shares were little changed at $169 in after-hours trading.
Chipotle warned that sales at established restaurants could drop 8
percent to 11 percent for the fourth quarter from a year earlier due
to the outbreak.
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The time between ingesting E. coli bacteria and feeling sick is
usually three to four days, but may be as short as one day or as
long as 10 days, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. Symptoms often begin slowly with mild belly pain or
non-bloody diarrhea that worsens over several days.
(Reporting by Anjali Athavaley in New York; Editing by Lisa
Shumaker)
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