FDA and mexican peppers

The US FDA is advising consumers that jalapeno and serrano peppers grown in the US are not connected with the current Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak. The FDA continues to advise consumers to avoid raw jalapeño peppers--and the food that contains them--if they have been grown, harvested or packed in Mexico. The press release states that "Additional traceback and traceforward information obtained this week has led to the determination that the Agricola Zaragoza produce-distribution center in McAllen, Texas--from where FDA took the positive jalapeño pepper sample--was not the original source of the contamination".

BarfBlog reported yesterday that Salmonella Saintpaul has been identified in irrigation water and a serrano pepper at a Mexican farm. The FDA has also traced a contaminated jalapeno pepper to a farm in another part of Mexico.

There is a lot of debate on the internet about this outbreak as I discussed last week. If irrigation or processing water is identified as a common theme on then it will put further emphasis on implementing good agricultural and good manufacturing practices.