Jalapeño chiles gets stacked with great care at La Merced market in central Mexico City on March 31, 2006. (Photo by Sarah Meghan Lee)
by Stephen J. Hedges
Call it the smoking jalapeno. After nearly two months of mystery, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has identified a jalepeno pepper that is contaminated with the same strain of Salmonella saintpaul that has sickened more than 1,237 people in 43 states.
It's the first time during this outbreak that a test has found the salmonella strain in a piece of produce.
The discovery, which will be announced shortly by FDA, was made at a packing plant in McAllen, Texas, according to a source familiar with the issue. The pepper was grown in Mexico, the source said, but was sent to the U.S. for sale. Authorities are not sure where it was contaminated with salmonella.
It is also not clear whether the same packing plant, which has not been named by the FDA, also packs tomatoes. The FDA first suspected tomatoes as the cause of the salmonella outbreak and warned consumers on June 7 to avoid certain types of tomatoes. It lifted that warning last week.
Because people continued to get sick after the tomato warning, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shifted their investigation to jalapeno and Serrano peppers, which sick people had reported eating.
For the FDA, which was under public and political pressure to find the cause of the salmonella outbreak, the discovery of a smoking pepper is a big breakthrough.
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Comments
Smokin'. Guess I'll have to cut down.
Posted by: Chile Lover | July 21, 2008 4:55 PM
Colonel Mustard, in the Kitchen, with the Pepper.
Posted by: Eric | July 21, 2008 5:12 PM
After hamstringing the tomato industry are they SURE they got it right this time?
Posted by: Al | July 21, 2008 5:36 PM
I still say tomatoes are gross.
Posted by: Charlie Gies | July 21, 2008 5:40 PM
Attack of the killer jalapena. Look out Peanut, here he comes!
Posted by: Walkbob | July 21, 2008 5:45 PM
After Mexico demanded we start using their tomatos I started looking at the source of all my produce and products. If it said Mexico, I said "NO."
I'm tired of their demands and unfair attitudes toward the US. We can't do anything to upset their economy, but they don't do one thing to help us.
Forget about it. I'll never vacation in their dirty cities again...even on a cruise.
Posted by: reza santorini | July 21, 2008 5:46 PM
Holy smokes! What isn't contaminated these days? I mean really!
Posted by: Leigh | July 21, 2008 6:00 PM
I was really hoping the salmonella would be found in cilantro. It tastes like soap, and it's getting harder and harder to avoid.
Posted by: Tim Wickstrom | July 21, 2008 8:12 PM
OK, A pepper, one single pepper found in a Texass plant. Who is to say it is the processing plant who is responsible and not the Mexican pepper? Why so much illness? Seems the plant needs to be flushed out.
Posted by: Demetria | July 21, 2008 8:27 PM
I feel sorry for the tomato farmers. No one should have come forward until they were 100% sure....unless everyone was dying. I know someone who got sick eating part of the same tomato I did. I didn't get sick because I always drink an 8 oz glass of water with one tsp of apple cider vinegar in it with every meal.
I read where people had eaten fish that had gone bad and the only person not getting sick drank this mix.
Posted by: Teresa | July 21, 2008 9:21 PM
Teresa--OUR obligation is to ourselves and our friends and neighbors---not the people who are insured for this sort of problem.
Posted by: caveat venditor, baby! | July 21, 2008 10:28 PM
caveat- Have you got some problem with protecting business? I'm not sure where you're coming from. Diarhea vs a mans livelihood. I have no problem with Govt trying to come up with a better way to tell where the food item came from, but from what I hear about that, it could be quite a daunting task> with the tomato for example, the buyers go thru several different boxes to decide what they'll buy. Seems impossible to fix.
Posted by: Teresa | July 22, 2008 4:36 AM
I read where insurance won't cover the loss because it only covers natural disasters.
Posted by: Teresa | July 22, 2008 8:54 AM
Teresa's right. The government isn't here to help the people, it's here to help businesses. Lincoln said it best, "Government of the corporation, by the corporation, for the corporation."
Now quit worrying about your own health, and the health of your family. There are corporate profits to protect. Eat whatever we put in front of you, and smile as you do it! A serious illness is a small price for you to pay for our profits.
Posted by: Agribusiness | July 22, 2008 9:27 AM
Agri- without corporations how do you think you and others would earn your living?
You sound like a victim.
Posted by: Teresa | July 22, 2008 11:46 AM