And the list goes on...

Today I probed a little deeper into the blogosphere to look for other potential contamination problems. What I found disgusted me.

• In August 2008, Subway stores in the UK and Ireland were responsible for a salmonella outbreak that killed one person and made 120 others sick. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1043031/Sandwich-chain-Subway-linked-deadly-salmonella-outbreak.html)
• In July 2009, a Miami Beach Subway was cited for multiple health care violations including toxic items being improperly used, labeled or stored, unclean surfaces and utensils, poor food protection (as during storage or preparation,) and improper thawing of potentially hazardous food. There was no follow-up action to ensure that these problems had been fixed. (http://miami.everyblock.com/restaurant-inspections/by-date/2009/7/28/225097/)
• One user on a consumer feedback site, who is a vegetarian, reported in 2008 that he/she has had repeated problems with Subway employees not washing knives properly in between orders so that no meat remnants make it into her sandwich. (http://www.my3cents.com/showReview.cgi?id=45933)
  
• And, finally, the Irvine location-- the one where the employee didn't wash her knife properly for my order, the one one which sparked this whole blog-- was written up in April of 2007 for a cockroach infestation. That's right, cockroaches. All over my local Subway. (http://articles.latimes.com/2007/apr/01/local/me-ocfoodclosed1)

I realize that not all of these examples come from one of the three locations I'm concerned with. But if it can happen at one Subway, it can happen at any of them. Let's not wait for an Orange County-based salmonella outbreak to start taking this seriously.