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For several years, alerts circulated online have warned about the purported dangers of cutting an onion and then cooking with that sliced vegetable the following day: The earliest example of such a warning we've encountered came in that form of a missive that began circulating in March 2008. It was penned by Sarah McCann, who writes online about food-related matters, including recipes, warning about the purported dangers of spoiled onions. (The pen name Zola Gorgon is a play on gorgonzola, a veined blue Italian cheese known for its strong flavor and distinctive odor.) Mike Mullins of Mullins Food Products had this to say about the tour of his company's facilities that resulted in the Internet rumor about food poisonings from onions and mayonnaise: As to the content of the article, it is true that commercially-prepared mayonnaise is hardly the food poisoning menace it is widely believed to be. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin's Food Research Institute in late 1980 and early 1981 (results published in the Journal of Food Protection in February 1982) showed that mayonnaise actually inhibited the growth of some bacteria in food. Its high acid content, gained from the incorporation of ingredients like vinegar or lemon juice into the product, slows bacterial growth. When you add the mayonnaise to your salad, you decrease the PH of that salad. It makes it more of a hostile environment for that bacteria, said Michael P. Doyle, an assistant professor of agriculture and life sciences at the university. Salt in the condiment also works to prevent spoilage. However, mayonnaise is still not a substitute for keeping food cold. Also, homemade mayo, which is made from raw eggs, poses the threat of salmonella poisoning. (The eggs used in commercially-prepared mayonnaise have been pasteurized.) The claims made in the article about onions (and to a lesser extent, potatoes) are harder to substantiate. Germ transmission does occur more quickly when surfaces nasty microbes are lurking on or items that become contaminated by them are wet rather than dry; but it's a great leap from realizing that cut surfaces of onions and potatoes are wet to concluding either of these vegetables are a huge magnet for bacteria. Also, cut bulb onions are highly acidic; the act of slicing them causes the enzymes they contain to generate sulphenic acids, the gas form of which has made many an unwary onion chopper cry. Given that it is mayonnaise's acidity that retards the growth of bacteria, it's hard to conclude that cut onions would be a hospitable place for germs or bacteria to take up residence, let alone a magnet that drew them from the air. However, long-standing superstition posits that very thing. It has long been asserted that keeping a plate of cut raw onions in the house will draw illness-causing germs from the air, thereby rendering the home free of contamination. These print sightings gathered by folklorists Iona Opie and Moira Tatum showcase that belief: Mind you, superstition also asserts that it is unlucky to keep cut onions around, as these additional sightings gathered by Opie and Tatum demonstrate: Are cut bulb onions therefore a health scourge one must be on guard against? No scientific evidence points in that direction. What reports there are that tie onions to outbreaks of food poisoning almost exclusively name green onions (also known as long onions or scallions) as the culprit. Although both sorts could be exposed to e. coli and other nasties during their time in the ground or while being handled during the move to market, green onions are chopped up and eaten as is, whereas the paperish brown peel that covers bulb onions and which is discarded rather than ingested acts as a shield against contamination. The one instance we found that fingered bulb onions as the transmitter in a food poisoning case was the 1984 sickening of 28 people in Peoria, Illinois. Botulism was passed to those unfortunate souls by the sauteed onions used on a restaurant's patty melt (a cheeseburger on rye with sauteed onions).
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