HEPATITIS OUTBREAK No cause found in onion probe

A fourth person who ate at the restaurant has died.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration has found no "smoking gun" that explains how green onions from Mexico became tainted, causing hepatitis A outbreaks in Pennsylvania and three other states, a top official told The Associated Press.
The FDA, however, is confident the onions that sickened hundreds and killed three were contaminated at four farms that have since been shut down by the Mexican government, said Jack Guzewich, director of emergency coordination and response in the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
None of the Mexican farms was linked to outbreaks in all four states, but onions from all four farms harvested late last summer were linked to outbreaks in at least two states, Guzewich said.
Statistically, it's all but impossible for the onions to have been tainted after they left the farm because of the myriad routes the vegetables took in each case, he said.
No plan
The FDA has not yet issued a final report, but experts say it's still unclear what the agency should -- or can -- do to safeguard future Mexican green onion shipments.
"They kind of have to do something because it just is unacceptable for people to get sick and die from eating fresh vegetables," said Devon Zagory, senior vice president of Davis Fresh Technologies, a food safety consulting firm. "But to target the whole [Mexican green onion] industry, that's a slippery slope to go down."
At least 660 people were sickened in the Pennsylvania outbreak last year, including three who died, because of green onions served at a Chi-Chi's restaurant in Beaver County, Pa. That remains the largest single-source hepatitis A outbreak in U.S. history.
Meanwhile, a fourth person, Frank Rossi, 50, of Aliquippa, who had been hospitalized for the past three months, died Thursday, said his attorney, Richard Urick. An autopsy to determine the cause of death had not been scheduled as of Friday.
More than 300 people got sick in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee from eating green onions at other restaurants.