FDA warns not to eat pistachios

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- Federal food safety officials warned Monday that consumers should stop eating all foods containing pistachios while they figure out the source of a suspected salmonella contamination.

Still reeling from the national salmonella outbreak in peanuts, the Food and Drug Administration said Central California-based Setton Farms, the nation's second-largest pistachio processor, was voluntarily recalling all of its 2008 crop - more than 1 million pounds of nuts.

"Our advice to consumers is that they avoid eating pistachio products, and that they hold on to those products," said Dr. David Acheson, assistant commissioner for food safety. "The number of products that are going to be recalled over the coming days will grow, simply because these pistachio nuts have then been repackaged into consumer-level containers."

Two people called the FDA complaining of gastrointestinal illness that could be associated with the nuts, but the link hasn't been confirmed, Dr. Acheson said. Still, the plant shut down late last week, officials said.

The recalled nuts represent a small fraction of the 60 million pounds of pistachios that the company's plant can process each year and an even smaller portion of the 278 million pounds produced in the state in the 2008 season, according to the Fresno-based Administrative Committee for Pistachios.

The FDA learned about the problem on March 24, when Kraft Foods Inc. notified the agency that it had detected salmonella in roasted pistachios through routine product testing. Kraft and the Georgia Nut Co. recalled their Back to Nature Nantucket Blend trail mix the next day.

The FDA contacted Setton Farms and California health officials shortly afterward. By Friday, grocery operator Kroger Co. recalled one of its lines of bagged pistachios because of suspected salmonella contamination, saying the California plant also supplied its nuts. Those nuts were sold in 31 states.

Because Setton Farms shipped 2,000-pound bags of nuts to 36 wholesalers across the country, it will take weeks to figure out how many products could be affected, said Jeff Farrar, chief of the Food and Drug Branch of the California Department of Public Health.

Setton Farms, based in Terra Bella, a rural hamlet in Tulare County, did not immediately respond to calls for comment.

"It will be safe to assume based on the volume that this will be an ingredient in a lot of different products, and that may possibly include things like ice cream and cake mixes," Mr. Farrar said. "The firm is already turning around trucks in transit to bring those back to the facility."