The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Monday that a sample of jalapeno pepper from a food distribution centre in McAllen, Texas, was a genetic match to the strain of Salmonella Saintpaul strain behind the current outbreak of Salmonella that has so far infected over 1,200 people nationwide.
The agency’s associate commissioner for foods Dr David Acheson, said in a telephone briefing reported by Reuters that:
“FDA has found a genetically matched Salmonella saintpaul isolate from a distribution center called Agricola Zaragosa in McAllen, Texas.”
The pepper was grown on a farm in Mexico, said the FDA announcement, but this does not mean it was contaminated in Mexico. Agricola Zaragoza are now voluntarily recalling all jalapeño peppers distributed from its Texas facility since 30th June this year.
Acheson said the FDA traced one cluster of illness to the distributor:
“We are working back from a population of patients who got sick in a single geographic area that ate in a single place.”
The FDA asked that consumers continue to avoid eating raw jalapeños, or foods made with them, until further notice. Cooked or pickled jalapeño peppers are not affected, said the agency. Raw serrano peppers, which look similar to jalapeños, and dishes made with them, are also still in the frame, but the FDA said only people in high risk groups should avoid them, such as the elderly, babies and anyone with a compromised immune system.
FDA inspectors found the contaminated jalapeño pepper sample after several weeks of tracing back all along the supply chain from production, through distribution, to consumption, collecting data from clusters of foodborne illness, distribution records, and lab tests on samples of water, soil, work surfaces and packing boxes.
The investigation is still trying to establish if the contamination occurred on the farm that grew the jalapeño peppers, or whether it occurred en route to the distribution centre in Texas.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that 1,251 people in 43 states, the District of Columbia and Canada have been infected with the same genetic strain of Salmonella Saintpaul since April 2008, said the Reuters report. 229 of the infected people had to be hospitalized, two of whom were elderly men who died of unrelated causes.
Salmonellosis, the illness that occurs from Salmonella infection, usually develops 12 to 72 hours after eating contaminated food. Symptoms including diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever, and last about 4 to 7 days. Most people recover without treatment, and babies, the very young, the very old, the infirm, and people who have weak immune systems are most at risk.
When infection is severe there is a risk of spreading from the intestines to the bloodstream and then to other parts of the body. When this happens the illness can kill. Treatment is usually by antibiotics.
Click here for Questions and Answers about this outhbreak (FDA).
Source: FDA, Reuters.
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD