I don’t know about you, but I found myself thinking twice before purchasing a bunch of green onions yesterday.

On November 24, I received a public advisory from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). I receive these reports automatically by email. “Hepatitis A associated with green onions in the U.S.” There had been outbreaks in several states, all traced to green onions imported from Mexico.

And the next morning, I heard a representative of the CFIA being interviewed on CBC radio. This must be serious.

While the CFIA and Health Canada have not detected any increase in Hepatitis A cases in Canada, they have issued this advisory:

“As a precaution, until further notice, consumers are advised to thoroughly cook green onions to minimize the risk of illness by reducing or eliminating the virus.”

It is interesting to note that unless you just happened to be listening to CBC at that exact time, you would likely not be aware of any problem. Also, I may have missed it, but I don’t think that I saw anything in the newspaper, so this “public advisory” was not so public.

I subscribe to the CFIA recall email, not because I am some sort of hypochondriac, but because Jordan and I are responsible for feeding thousands of people a year in our catering business. It is simply a matter of good risk-management for us to be on top of any potential source of food-borne illness.

I discovered this free service when I was trying to get more information about alfalfa sprouts transmitting E. Coli and Salmonella. We were using sprouts on some of our sandwiches, and although we had not received any recommendation to pull them from our local health board, I decided that if the CFIA was warning us not to use them raw, it wasn’t worth the risk. We stopped using them altogether—cooked sprouts don’t work well on sandwiches!

Eventually, restaurants in Calgary did receive a warning about using raw sprouts, and we never did put them back on our menu. There had been no further alerts about sprouts until just this morning. As soon as I turned on my computer, I heard the familiar “ping” of incoming email, and there was a new advisory involving sprouts. It doesn’t pay to become complacent.

There are few days when I don’t receive emailed alerts from the CFIA. Health hazard alerts have included: Chloramphenicol in honey, Histamine in fish, carcinogenic food dyes such as Sudan I, metal in candy, potential botulism from improperly sealed sauces, bone fragments in sausage, improperly killed beef, and lead in maple syrup.

The warning includes specific product names, where they are produced and have been distributed, potential health risks, and details of any recall. In the case of lesser-known agents, such as Listeria or Nitrofurans, a brief description of symptoms may also be included. There is always a list of contacts for further information.

            I think what surprises me most is the number of days I receive allergy alerts. The incidence of “undeclared” peanuts, milk, eggs, wheat, sulphites, sesame seeds and soy is frightening.

            Nothing is safe; there have been two alerts in the past several months involving undeclared peanut, milk, wheat and egg in Easy Bake oven mixes. One of these resulted in a reported illness.

            There are occasional general “reminders” to properly cook foods. There was quite an issue this past spring with Salmonella infections in children from eating inadequately cooked frozen chicken nuggets, and this summer a warning not to eat shucked Pacific oysters raw.

Sometimes these warning make it to the newspaper, but often they are simply passed along to foodservice operators and food distributors.

I spoke to Joel, produce manager at Village Foods, and he was aware of the green onion advisory. He also said that his current batch of green onions were from Mexico. I mentioned that he should at least give the customer an opportunity to make an informed choice.

            “Everyone wants (produce) even when it’s out of season and our suppliers get it from wherever it’s available. That’s just the way it is.” Joel said. As for the onions, he said that they sometimes come form Mexico and sometimes California or B.C., it all depends upon the season.

“People don’t understand. They want cucumber now and then complain because it’s yellow and costs $3.00. They want everything out of season.”

            I couldn’t have said it more succinctly. We have in many ways brought this problem upon ourselves. We expect to have a full range of produce twelve months of the year, and retailers are only trying to meet our demands. Do you remember the winters of our youth? There were no green beans unless frozen or canned, and tomatoes came wrapped in cellophane and tasted like, well, cellophane.

Being informed is half the battle, and we have to accept the fact that all countries do not have the same stiff food regulations that we have in Canada. If we choose to eat like kings, we have to take some responsibility.

I think that if I had a child with a serious food allergy, I would make it my business to be on top of any new reported “undeclared” allergen. We can’t always count on SOMEONE watching over us.