IRVINE Calif. A green-onion supplier has filed a lawsuit against Taco Bell for citing the vegetable as the suspected source of an E. coli contamination within the chain even after testing by the Food and Drug Administration had indicated the onions were not the cause.
The suit asserts that Taco Bell libeled the plaintiff, Oxnard, Calif.-based Boskovich Farms, and destroyed much of its business. Although Taco Bell did not name Boskovich as its sole green onion supplier, some media reports identified it as such.
Taco Bell said it did no wrong in saying green onions may have been the source of outbreak. Taco Bell fingered green onions as the culprit in press statements and an open letter that ran in national newspapers Dec. 13.
"We believed green onions may have been the source, based on the presumptive positive testing, so we immediately removed them from our products to put public safety first," Taco Bell spokesman Rob Poetsch said in a statement. "We later learned they were not the source of the E. coli outbreak. Throughout this entire matter, Taco Bell acted openly, responsibly and with the public safety as our primary concern."
Taco Bell said it lost $20 million in operating profit as a result of the E. coli incident. Boskovich Farms did not specify how much money it lost, but an attorney said it was in the millions of dollars. Boskovich Farms is a family owned grower.
Seventy Taco Bell customers were confirmed to have been sickened with E. coli, but reports of suspected cases ran to several hundred people.