FDA investigation broadens beyond tomatoes

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The government Saturday said that it has begun looking at jalapeno peppers as a possible cause of the record salmonella outbreak, which has been blamed on tomatoes and caused widespread damage to the tomato industry in the U.S. and Mexico.

The Food and Drug Administration also said it had begun to look at ingredients used to make salsa, such as cilantro and Serrano peppers. Tomatoes continue to be investigated as well, spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek said.

On Tuesday, the government said it would test numerous other kinds of fresh produce commonly served with fresh tomatoes while insisting tomatoes remained the most likely culprit.

Officials have said some patients have told the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention they ate raw tomatoes in fresh salsa and guacamole.

CDC spokesman Glen Nowak said Saturday that the agency’s scientists are looking at salsa ingredients, including peppers, in their round-the-clock efforts to try to pinpoint the source of the outbreak.

“We don’t rank the items we’re looking at,” Mr. Nowak said.

Investigators with the CDC have interviewed people sickened in June to find out what they ate and to compare their diets with those of healthy relatives and neighbors. Officials so far have not revealed early findings, but said they supported the investigation’s new move.

Among the possibilities FDA has said it was exploring is whether tomatoes and other produce are sharing a common packing or shipping site where both might become contaminated, or whether multiple foods might be tainted while being grown on adjoining farms or with common water sources.

If the salmonella investigation eventually blames peppers or cilantro, tomato growers on both sides of the Rio Grande will be hopping mad.

The U.S. tomato industry has taken a $100 million hit as restaurants temporarily dropped tomatoes from their menus, and farmers have had to plow under their fields or leave crops to rot in packinghouses.

Mexico has not calculated its losses. But growers there worry they still may be under a shadow of suspicion as late as November, when greenhouses harvest their summer tomatoes.

A team of three FDA inspectors has gone through five farms in Mexico’s western states of Jalisco and Sinaloa in the past two weeks, looking at all aspects of tomato production: the greenhouses where they are grown, the packing plants where they are shut into boxes and the shipping methods for the trip north to the U.S. They also plan to visit the northern state of Coahuila to finish their study.

The results can’t come too soon for the three Mexican states that were targeted by the FDA, along with farms in Texas and Florida.

“We’re demanding that they release those results as soon as possible so that Sinaloa can be cleared of any suspicion,” said Manuel Tarriba, president of Sinaloa’s Tomato Growers Association, whose state grows about 40 percent of all tomatoes sent to the U.S.

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