• December 7, 2006

Green onions are off the menu at all 5,800 Taco Bells after an E.coli outbreak at restaurants in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania left about 60 people sick.

A Taco Bell spokesman said that samples of green onions pulled from a food distributor in the Northeast were "presumed positive," although the chain said tests were not conclusive.

After the outbreak, which occurred Dec. 3, Taco Bell closed nine restaurants in suburban Philadelphia and nine in New York and New Jersey. The restaurants, cleaned, sanitized and completely restocked with fresh food, have since reopened.

"It's going to hurt Taco Bell, particularly in the general vicinity of those restaurants," Ron Paul, president of Chicago-based restaurant consultant Technomic Inc., told Bloomberg. "Those restaurants could easily see anything from a 20 percent to 40 percent decline in sales. It will take a month or two to get sales to return."

New Jersey health officials said they are investigating Taco Bell distributor McLane Foodservice Inc., which they said is the sole distributor of ingredients to Taco Bell restaurants in New Jersey, Long Island, Pennsylvania and Delaware.