FDA Fruits and Vegetables SALMONELLA Alerts - UPDATES

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                                         FDA finds salmonella strain in jalapeno pepper







By LAURAN NEERGAARD,
AP Medical Writer
July 21, 2008
 
WASHINGTON - Government inspectors finally have a big clue in the nationwide salmonella outbreak: They found the same bacteria strain on a single Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper handled in Texas —
and issued a stronger warning for consumers to avoid fresh jalapenos.
 
But Monday's discovery, the equivalent of a fingerprint, doesn't solve the mystery: 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.

Still, "this genetic match is a very important break in the case," said Dr. David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration's food safety chief.

For now, the government is strengthening its earlier precaution against hot peppers to a full-blown warning that no one should eat fresh jalapenos — 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 jalapenos 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 jalapenos — 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.

"I recognize there is a need to narrow this as soon as possible," Acheson added — as parts of the country are entering prime hot pepper season.

A person who answered the phone at Agricola Zaragoza declined comment.

The pepper industry was bracing for an economic hit and urged FDA to quickly clear jalapenos grown in certain areas, like it earlier did with tomatoes.

"That is a very broad brush to tar the industry with," said John McClung, president of the Texas Produce Association.

Tomato producers have insisted their summertime staple couldn't be to blame, and are estimating that industry losses may reach $250 million.

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 jalapeno connection appeared only in June.

"There may be more than one vehicle here," Dr. Robert Tauxe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.

"The tomato cases are not exonerated," Acheson added.

The tainted pepper "is an important clue but the investigation is far from complete," said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the consumer advocacy Center for Science in the Public Interest, who described a maze of channels the FDA now must follow to determine where the contamination occurred.

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?

While health officials were cautiously excited at finally finding a firm clue, lawmakers decried the probe's slow pace.

"The fact that it has taken over 14 weeks to identify the source of the contamination is simply unacceptable," said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., who is pushing for stronger requirements to help
trace tainted produce. "Much like (the) tomato industry, the result is a blanket warning that will decimate the entire industry and further depress consumer confidence when only a tiny fraction of peppers may be contaminated."

The outbreak isn't over yet, said Tauxe said. But the CDC said 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.

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                                      Surprising Truths About Fruits and Vegetables







Robin Lloyd
LiveScience Senior Editor
LiveScience.com
Tue Jul 22, 2008
 
Tomatoes, japaleño peppers, serrano peppers and now avocadoes are all under scrutiny due to the recent Salmonella outbreak, making many Americans nervous about eating their vegetables.



 
Or make that, their fruits. Oh, drat. Which is it?



Actually, all four of these produce items are classified as fruits by scientists, regardless of what consumers, grocers and nutritionists think, said Amy Litt, director of Plant Genomics and Cullman
curator at The New York Botanical Garden.


"The thing that is funny from my point of view, and it's always a mystery to me, is that everyone knows that a tomato is a fruit, but they don't know that a squash or a string bean or a cuke [cucumber] is also a fruit," said Litt, who lately is studying the genes that make tomatoes fleshy. "I'm not sure how it got into the public realm of knowledge that a tomato is a fruit. But it's like, well, all these other things are a fruit too."

In reality, the public is fairly clueless on all of this. In a straw poll of 35 people in Manhattan yesterday, about half (18) said tomatoes were a fruit. All but one person said string beans were a vegetable and most (30) said squash is a vegetable.

Avocadoes, string beans, squash, eggplant, green pepper and okra are all technically fruits, Litt says. On the other hand, rhubarb is not a fruit. Let's not even start with strawberries just yet.








Totally lost?



OK, in the world of botany, a fruit is the structure that bears the seeds of a plant. It is formed in the plant's flower. In the center, the female parts of the flower include the ovary. The ovary has structures inside that become the seeds when fertilized. So the ovary will develop into the fruit.

To the plant, fruits are basically a means of spreading the seeds around, generally by wind or animal poop. In the latter case, fruits such as raspberries become thicker and accumulate sugars and bright colors, thereby attracting birds or other animals that eat and then "we say, they deposit the seeds in a package of fertilizer," Litt said. In other cases, the fruit dries out and opens and the winds carries the seeds to their next home to start the cycle over again.

A good example is cotton or a milkweed pod.

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                                    FDA limits salmonella warning to Mexican peppers






Mexican official says finding that pepper came from Mexico "premature"

Official says tomatoes still not "exonerated," but those on shelves are safe

The FDA advises against eating raw jalapeños from Mexico

Immune-compromised people should also avoid raw serrano peppers from Mexico


     
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Only Mexican-grown raw jalapeños and raw serrano peppers have been linked to the salmonella outbreak, a spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.


Raw jalapeño peppers from Mexico have been connected to the salmonella outbreak.

Mexican officials said the findings were "premature," even as the FDA issued an advisory stating that a contaminated jalapeño pepper originated in Mexico.

Mexico's National Sanitation and Farm Food Quality Service director Enrique Sanchez told The Associated Press that Mexico sent a letter to the United States on Friday "expressing our concern and our most forceful complaint against this decision."

According to AP reports, Sanchez said the FDA "has no scientific proof to make a decision that will harm Mexico enormously."

The latest development came just days after the FDA announced it discovered salmonella on a jalapeño imported from Mexico at The Agricola Zarigosa produce distribution center in McAllen, Texas.

The FDA said traceback studies of food eaten by victims who became sick indicate the contaminated jalapeño pepper originated in Mexico.

The agency concluded the distribution center was not the source of the outbreak because peppers from a number of clusters never passed through there, said Dr. David Acheson, the agency's director of food safety.

To date, all traceback studies have led to Mexico and peppers grown in the United States have not been connected to the outbreak, he said.

But Mexican Embassy spokesman Ricardo Alday noted that the investigation is ongoing.

"Mexico strongly urges the FDA to abstain from making any further public comment implicating Mexican produce in this outbreak until it has completed its investigation of jalapeño peppers in Mexico, and until the United States has assured the result with their Mexican counterparts," Alday said.

Peppers grown in the United States have not been connected to the outbreak that has sickened more than 1,000 people since April, said FDA spokesman Michael Herndon.

Initially, tomatoes seemed the most likely source of the outbreak. The FDA told consumers to avoid certain raw tomatoes on June 7, prompting grocery chains and some restaurants nationwide to stop offering them.

The agency lifted that ban last week, determining that tomatoes currently in fields and stores are safe.  Learn about the differences between salmonella and E. coli »

The FDA now advises consumers to avoid raw jalapeño peppers grown in Mexico and any foods containing raw jalapeño peppers grown in Mexico.

Only immune-compromised people, the elderly and infants should avoid raw serrano peppers from Mexico, Herndon said.

Cooked or pickled peppers from cans or jars are not part of the warning.  Learn how to keep your food safe »

Tomatoes, which were the original focus of the investigation, still have not been ruled out as a possible source of the outbreak, said Dr. David Acheson, director of food safety for the agency.

"The science that indicated that tomatoes were implicated was strong and is still strong," he said "It's not that tomatoes have been exonerated."

He said officials do not believe that tomatoes currently on the market are contaminated.

Officials said earlier this week that tomatoes could have been paired with another food that was contaminated, prompting the outbreak.


So far, 1,294 people infected with the same type of Salmonella Saintpaul have been identified in 43 states, the District of Columbia and Canada, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At least 242 have been hospitalized.

This particular Salmonella Saintpaul fingerprint is normally seen in only 25 cases a year, said Ian Williams, chief of the CDC's Outbreak Net Team.

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Official says tomatoes still not "exonerated," but those on shelves are safe

The FDA advises against eating raw jalapeños from Mexico

Immune-compromised people should also avoid raw serrano peppers from Mexico