Taco Bell distributor gets clean bill of health

Taco Bell distributor gets clean bill of health McLane Foodservice Inc., the distributor to the Taco Bell restaurants reportedly linked to the recent E. coli outbreak in several northeastern states, said Monday that a site investigation by the New Jersey Department of Health and Environmental Services found no evidence of improper storage or handling practices by McLane.
   Authorities last week inspected the McLane distribution center in Burlington Township, N.J., which distributes supplies to Taco Bells in the New York and New Jersey area. The inspectors reviewed the sanitation, product handling, and employee health and training practices regularly employed by McLane during the entire period the contaminated products reportedly were received and distributed.
   McLane, based in Carrollton, Texas, operates 17 other distribution centers across the country.
   Taco Bell ordered scallions be removed from its 5,800 restaurants after tests indicated they may be responsible for the outbreak that sickened nearly six dozen people in five states.
   According to a written statement issued Friday by NJDHES, its inspection of McLane 'did not indicate any problems with the firm's food safety operations.' NJDHES also announced that all 15 product samples taken from McLane in NJDHES's initial investigative visit last week have tested preliminarily negative.
   'We are extremely pleased the State of New Jersey's investigation appears to have confirmed what we at McLane already believed, namely, that any contamination in all likelihood occurred at a source other than McLane,' said President Tom Zatina, said in a statement. 'Because all green onion products arrive to us in sealed cellophane bags inside sealed corrugated boxes, we have felt from the beginning it was highly improbable that McLane caused or contributed to any E. coli contamination.'
   McLane Foodservices is a subsidiary of McLane Co., a Berkshire Hathaway company, and the nation’s largest wholesale distributor of food and consumer packaged goods.