FDA nails down salmonella to jalapeños in Texas.

[lpbk2713]

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/us/22salmonella.html?ref=health

They aren't sure where the jalapeños were grown but they found a genetic match in the peppers and the salmonella strain that sickened over 1200 people in the past three months. Tomato growers lost over $100 million when it was suspected that tomatoes of unknown origin from several states and Mexico were carrying salmonella.

[RB TexLa]

1. Well if jalapenos are going to kill me, I'm just going to have to die.

[Warpy]

7. Same here, this is salsa fresca season

Jalapenos for flavor, serranos for bite.

[napi21]

2. The FDA is a complete failure! They destroyed an industry, and

still aren't willing to state the tomatoes are OK! Shame on them for their inability to isolate the problem early and accurately!

[Skink]

3. jalapenos are half the vegatable isle here.

If you close your eyes while strolling the isle you can see your nostrils.

[WheelWalker]

4. My daughter told me they'd kill me. She hopes.

[TexasObserver]

5. I've been buying my jalapenos in the jar the past few weeks because of this.

It's a piss poor substitute, but it will do for now.

[AlCzervik]

6. i have zero confidence in the fda and all the other agencies Bush has stocked with idiots.

fist thing Obama should when he wins is to hire professionals at OSHA, The FDA and please dear god---FEMA.

[MonteLukast]

8. Subtitute "jalapenos" for "tomatoes" in this passage

Emphases are mine.

(From http://www.cdc.gov/Salmonella/saintpaul/faq.html#g3)

(1) if tomatoes are immersed in water that is colder than the tomato, water can enter through the stem scar; if the water is contaminated, Salmonella can be carried in;

(2) if contaminated water touches the stem or flower of a tomato plant, the growing tomato can be contaminated. Contamination on the tomato surface also can be transferred to the inside when it is cut.

Food handlers infected with Salmonella who have not washed their hands may also contaminate tomatoes during preparation. If a cut tomato that is contaminated with Salmonella is kept out of the refrigerator, the bacteria can multiply to much higher numbers.


I was taken aback. There are so many opportunities for these, very tenacious, bacteria to seed an infection. The thing that most disturbed me about the E. coli spinach outbreak was the fact that these bacteria could not be washed off once they had adhered to the fresh vegetable. The organisms can even contaminate soil.

Salmonella saintpaul is very rare, but most often infects, you guessed it, young farm animals. Water contamination with livestock feces sure is a theme anymore.

[bean fidhleir]

16. E. coli can too be washed off. Use a dilute chlorine bleach quick-rinse.

We had to do that in Germany, where farmers routinely fertilized with raw septic tank sewage 40+ years ago (maybe they still do). I don't remember the dilution factor --we bought packets at the NAAFI or the PX, maybe it was 5%-- but it was quite effective. Swish the veggies back and forth several times through the solution, and rinse in clear water.

[flvegan]

9. Sure they did.

The FDA couldn't nail down "this is my ass, which I found with my own two hands".

And these Shidiots (flvegan original, copyright 2008) wouldn't know nor care otherwise.

[spin]

10. Jalapeños are good, but Habanero peppers are better...

I used to eat jalapenos but once I discovered Scotch Bonnet and Habanero peppers, there was no turning back. Much, much hotter with a better taste.

Currently, I'm growing some Habanero and some Thai peppers. This is my first time growing hot peppers and the plants are growing well and it looks like I can anticipate a good harvest shortly.

I wonder if Habanero peppers are so hot that salmonella will avoid them.

A Pictorial Guide To Peppers
http://members.visi.net/~mandy/pepguide.html

[scheming daemons]

11. Why is it that almost everything wrong in this country has a connection to Texas?

[leftofthedial]

12. heckuva job, FDA!!

those repukes sure know how to ru(i)n a gummint don't they?

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mrs_p]

14. i won't make excuses

for the fda, but there is a complicated process that goes in to determining an outbreak source. from what i remember in my epidemiology of infectious diseases class, bacterial isolates from patients need to be sequenced and then compared to each other and to other bacterial isolates found in food using the pulsenet database. it is really hard to figure out what the source is, as often the product has already been ingested. it's best if, like in the case of the tainted spinach, the investigators can go to an infected person's house and sample everything in the fridge. i haven't been following this case very closely, but i suspect that the investigators found a matching isolate in salsa containing both tomatoes and jalapeños and went from there.

check out pulsenet if you are interested: http://www.cdc.gov/PULSENET/whatis.htm

[lpbk2713]

15. The FDA erred on the side of caution.

But it was the migrant tomato pickers who were hurt the most. They don't
have any insurance or government bailout programs to back them up.