Government inspectors finally have a big clue in the nationwide salmonella outbreak - they found the same bacteria strain on a single Mexican-grown jalapeño pepper handled in Texas. Yes, our government can find a single pepper in Texas but can't find Osama Bin Laden.Monday's discovery, the equivalent of a fingerprint, doesn't solve the mystery though. Authorities still don't know where the pepper became tainted — on the farm, or in the McAllen, Texas, plant, or at some stop in between, such as a packing house. Nor are they saying the tainted pepper exonerates tomatoes sold earlier in the spring that consumers until last week had been told were the prime suspect. Could it be peppers and tomatoes are tainting each other. Sounds nasty.
Still, the FDA calls the genetic match a very important break in the case. For now, the government is strengthening its earlier precaution against hot peppers to a full-blown warning that no one should eat fresh jalapeños — or products such as fresh salsa made from them — until it can better pinpoint where tainted ones may have sold. Tomatoes currently on the market, in contrast, now are considered safe to eat.
The Texas plant, Agricola Zaragoza, has suspended sales of fresh jalapeños and recalled those shipped since June 30 — shipments it said were made to Georgia and Texas. FDA said no other produce currently in the plant has tested positive for salmonella, and was continuing to probe where the produce came from and went. But a sign over Agricola Zaragoza's spot inside a huge produce warehouse on Monday displayed pictures of tomatoes, onions and tomatillos alongside jalapeños — suggesting the small vendor might have handled both major suspects in the outbreak that has sickened 1,251 people.
McAllen, Texas, near the Mexican border, is in a region deemed a major hub for both Texas-grown and imported produce. Although Agricola Zaragoza is a small operation, it's unclear whether inspectors have yet visited the company's neighboring vendors inside the huge warehouse filled with tractor-trailers loading and unloading fruits and vegetables. But health officials maintain they had good evidence linking certain raw tomatoes to the outbreak's early weeks in April and May, and that the jalapeño connection appeared only in June.
Among top questions: Did the farm, packing house and distributors all use clean water? What fertilizer was used, and when? Given this distributor's small size, who else distributed contaminated supply — or could there have been cross contamination with other products? And why does Jessica Simpson suck so much? (what, you think produce is the only tainted stuff from there?)
The outbreak isn't over yet they say, but the CDC announced last week that it appeared to be slowing, and indeed has confirmed just 14 additional cases since then. The latest that someone fell ill was July 4.
I'm just using it as an excuse to post some Trailer Park Boys, because Ricky can't pronounce "jalapeño".
Still, the FDA calls the genetic match a very important break in the case. For now, the government is strengthening its earlier precaution against hot peppers to a full-blown warning that no one should eat fresh jalapeños — or products such as fresh salsa made from them — until it can better pinpoint where tainted ones may have sold. Tomatoes currently on the market, in contrast, now are considered safe to eat.
The Texas plant, Agricola Zaragoza, has suspended sales of fresh jalapeños and recalled those shipped since June 30 — shipments it said were made to Georgia and Texas. FDA said no other produce currently in the plant has tested positive for salmonella, and was continuing to probe where the produce came from and went. But a sign over Agricola Zaragoza's spot inside a huge produce warehouse on Monday displayed pictures of tomatoes, onions and tomatillos alongside jalapeños — suggesting the small vendor might have handled both major suspects in the outbreak that has sickened 1,251 people.
McAllen, Texas, near the Mexican border, is in a region deemed a major hub for both Texas-grown and imported produce. Although Agricola Zaragoza is a small operation, it's unclear whether inspectors have yet visited the company's neighboring vendors inside the huge warehouse filled with tractor-trailers loading and unloading fruits and vegetables. But health officials maintain they had good evidence linking certain raw tomatoes to the outbreak's early weeks in April and May, and that the jalapeño connection appeared only in June.
Among top questions: Did the farm, packing house and distributors all use clean water? What fertilizer was used, and when? Given this distributor's small size, who else distributed contaminated supply — or could there have been cross contamination with other products? And why does Jessica Simpson suck so much? (what, you think produce is the only tainted stuff from there?)
The outbreak isn't over yet they say, but the CDC announced last week that it appeared to be slowing, and indeed has confirmed just 14 additional cases since then. The latest that someone fell ill was July 4.
I'm just using it as an excuse to post some Trailer Park Boys, because Ricky can't pronounce "jalapeño".
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