Dr. David Acheson, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s associate commissioner for foods, announced at a mid-afternoon teleconference Monday that a sample of jalapenos tainted with Salmonella Saintpaul was found at a packing plant in Texas and came from a farm in Mexico.
"While this one sample doesn’t give us the whole story, this genetic match is a very important break in the case. This will ultimately, hopefully, allow us to pinpoint the source of the contamination, which has caused the outbreak."
Acheson was quick to note that, while the contaminated pepper was grown on a farm in Mexico, "that does not mean that the pepper was contaminated in Mexico."
Acheson identified the firm as Agricola Zaragoza Inc., of Mcallen, Texas, which, according to its company’s online profile, is a small wholesale distributor of fruits and vegetables.
Acheson added that a warning issued last week against eating either jalapeno or serrano peppers if you are at risk of infection continues. The warning includes infants and elderly people. Tomatoes currently in distribution are safe to eat.
Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, said tomatoes have not been exonerated and still were under investigation.
The toll of confirmed cases stands at 1,251 people sickened in 43 states in what has become the largest foodborne outbreak in the United States in more than a decade. At least 228 victims required hospitalization.
It didn’t take long for the Center for Science in the Public Interest to say.
“… it’s time for Congress to step in and enact meaningful FDA reform legislation. Though time is short, Congress should act before another outbreak occurs to give FDA strong traceback authority, mandatory process control systems all the way back to the farm, and mandatory recall.”
Will that make food safer? Will it lead to fewer sick people? It’s not clear to me that any of the armchair quarterbacks – and there have been many – have gotten it right. As with the 2000 E. coli outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in Walkerton, Ontario, fragments of the puzzle are used to advance a particular political agenda. The talking heads may make interesting television for a few dozen shut-ins, but it’s a lousy way to set policy.