WASHINGTON, July 25, 2008
Americans Urged To Avoid Mexican Jalapenos
FDA: Peppers From Mexico Linked To Nationwide Salmonella Outbreak; U.S. Crop OK
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(CBS/iStockphoto)
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The Food and Drug Administration urged consumers to avoid raw Mexican jalapenos and the serrano peppers often confused with them, or dishes made with them such as fresh salsa.
But the big question is how those who love hot peppers would know where the chiles came from, especially in restaurant food.
"You're going to have to ask the person you're buying it from," said Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's food safety chief, who is advising restaurants and grocery stores to know their suppliers and pass that information to customers.
The big break in an outbreak that now has sickened nearly 1,300 people came on Monday, when FDA announced it had found the same strain of salmonella responsible for the outbreak on a single Mexican-grown jalapeno in a south Texas produce warehouse.
Tomatoes had been the prime suspect for weeks. And while those now on the market are considered safe to eat, health officials still haven't exonerated them from causing illnesses when the outbreak began in April.
The pepper discovery threatened to paralyze that industry, too. Chile production is a $500 million crop in New Mexico alone, which produces most of the U.S. crop, state agriculture commissioners wrote the FDA on Thursday.
Friday's move clearing U.S. peppers came because clusters of illnesses around the country all seem to be tracing back to Mexican jalapenos, though not all sold through the McAllen, Texas, produce warehouse, Acheson said.
"Domestically grown products are not tracing back at all to the outbreak," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "On Monday, we didn't know exactly where they all were coming from. Today we're certain these are coming from Mexico."
FDA inspectors are on the farm that grew the only tainted pepper discovered so far, trying to determine where else it sent a harvest that began in April, Acheson said. The farm is large, but the question now is whether it harvested enough to be responsible for such a geographically large outbreak.
The news is a relief for U.S. growers.
"It's good news, late in the process. It's an announcement they should have made some days ago," said John McClung of the Texas Produce Association.
He called the warning still too broad, because many peppers from Mexico are grown on farms in regions not implicated.
At the same time, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are retracing the probe's early steps to see if jalapenos were missed early on - or if tomatoes did indeed play a role. Initial reports from the first ill in New Mexico and Texas provided a strong link to tomatoes, but salsa was eaten, too, with less attention paid to its other ingredients.
"We're still very interested in looking at the role tomatoes played in this outbreak given the strong epidemiological association," said CDC's Dr. Ian Williams. That is "very much part of the active investigation at the moment."
To date, the CDC has confirmed 1,294 people sickened from the outbreak. It doesn't appear to be over yet, with people falling ill as late as July 10.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Posted by czmdm ........
hahahahhaaahahhahahaha... best post yet....
Lot of Xenophobs here. Afraid of a country and a people that they don''t even know.
That''''s it...just close down the southern border now.
Posted by yankeerebel7 at 12:05 PM
Just keep the cheep chineeeze food coming.
''Cause we can trust the chineeeze to send us
good stuff.
So the government is telling Americans:
"Don''t eat the Mexican''s pepper."
Sounds like a caption for a "dirty" cartoon.
Posted by bhappy2-2
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Then why hire illegals? Surely it seems ironic that a living wage cannot be paid to pick a necessity to life?
Posted by nikkicatt1
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Why does America offshore everything? (because it''s cheaper, but in theory there comes a point when the cheapness mindset has nowhere left to go. Or, that''s my worry at any rate).
Feel free to eat them indiscriminately* -- as was said, the bacteria penetrates the cells; washing is not a panacea in this instance.
* not really, but the point is, getting sick is nasty and so is thinking indiscriminately.
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Uh, washing doesn''t help. Salmonella Bacteria invade the cells of vegetables so scrubbing the outside doesn''t have much effect.
Posted by ghostcommand at 06:58 PM : Jul 25, 2008
+ report abuse
*******
how about this...eat as much jalapenos from mexico as you can..just do it to spit the us govt..
Posted by ghostcommand at 06:58 PM : Jul 25, 2008
+ report abuse
*******
how about this...eat as much jalapenos from mexico as you can..just do it to spit the us govt..
Get Government out of our lives, right?
Long as your child doesn''t die from food poisoning.
Are there even any AMERICAN jalapenos grown here anymore? What about the American jalapenos grown in Mexico? Or Mexican jalapenos grown in America by Mexicans?
Everyone knew that Mexico was the cause of the outbreak but the media is so secretive as well as the CDC.
There is nothing in Mexico but filth, unsanitary conditions and ignorance when it comes to their agricultural activities.
Of course the US crop is okay. When we say close the borders to Mexico, we mean no more importation of produce grown in their fecal and urine saturated fields.
I want home grown in the USA and I''ll pay whatever is costs.
Have a good munch on some Mexican peppers and let us know if your nazi theory is correct.
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