In my travels I come across people, places, and things. This article is such that I could have included it in my ingredient safety column, my natural ingredients column, or my FDA Regulatory column. They all would ties in nicely. On my way down to Dallas, Texas last week to install the new Society of Cosmetic Chemists Southwest Chapter officers for 2007, I was lucky enough to sit next to a gentle man from the CDC (Center for Disease Control) in Atlanta, Georgia. Instead of asking what he was doing in New York, I asked him if they ever found out what was causing the E. Coli outbreak at the Taco Bells in the New York Metropolitan area. First he said they though it was lettuce, then green onions (scallions - popular in Mexican cuisine), but they still aren't 100% sure what actually caused it. What he did say was that all the Taco Bells closed up until the situation was under control. It was a voluntary closure and not mandated by the CDC. Even though the problem was confined to the northeast United States, people still would not go there to eat.