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U.S. Peppers Get Clean Bill Of Health

FDA advises consumers to continue avoiding peppers grown in Mexico

July 28, 2008

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You can go ahead and enjoy jalapeño and Serrano peppers again, as long as they are grown in the United States.

The Food and Drug Administration said those varieties are not connected with the current Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak. The agency advised consumers to continue avoiding raw jalapenos -- and the food that contains them -- if they were grown, harvested or packed in Mexico.

In addition to domestically grown raw jalapeño peppers, commercially canned, pickled and cooked jalapeño peppers from any and all geographic locations also are not connected with the current Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak.

The FDA is working with state regulatory agencies and food industry groups that represent restaurants, grocery stores and wholesalers to ensure everyone clearly understands this new, narrower, advisory. The FDA will continue to refine its consumer guidance as the agency's investigation continues.

This latest advisory is based on evidence gathered during a multi-week, intensive investigation conducted in partnership with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and public health authorities in several U.S. states, to find the source of the contamination that led to the outbreak.

The collective review of the current traceback investigation and harvesting dates, matched with the dates that people became ill, have combined to indicate that the contaminated jalapeños originated in Mexico.

Additional traceback and traceforward information has led to the determination that the Agricola Zarigoza produce-distribution center in McAllen, Texas -- from where FDA took the positive jalapeño pepper sample -- was not the original source of the contamination.

The FDA is continuing to advise that people in high-risk populations, such as elderly persons, infants and people with impaired immune systems, avoid eating raw Serrano peppers from Mexico or food made from raw Serrano peppers from Mexico until further notice.

To date, more than 1,200 consumers have become ill with salmonella, whose symptoms include fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

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