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Food Insecurity - 2008 Tomato Recall Now Linked to Crops from Mexico

Dr. Acheson of the FDA testified to a packed Hearing of the Energy and Commerce Committee that the FDA found Salmonella saintpaul, the salmonella outbreak strain that has sickened at least 1,307 people since April, on a Mexican farm.

FDA officials say they got a break in discovering the source of the outbreak, when they found a trace of salmonella on a single jalapeno pepper in a McClean, Texas warehouse, that was imported from Mexico.

However, the CDC also reported that:

"It appears likely that more than one food vehicle is involved in this outbreak. It cannot all be entirely accounted for by a single food item. By themselves, tomatoes cannot explain the entire outbreak, nor do jalapeno peppers explain all the clusters. It appears likely that more than one food vehicle is involved. Although rare, more than one food has been implicated in foodborne outbreaks in the past.

At present, information indicates that jalapeño peppers and Serrano peppers grown harvested, or packed in Mexico are the cause of some clusters and are major food vehicles for the outbreak. Although tomatoes currently on the market are safe, raw tomatoes consumed early in the outbreak are still under investigation. The outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul has been isolated twice from jalapeno peppers and once from Serrano peppers."

The outbreak is now clearly linked to Jalapenos and Serrano peppers. Tomatoes, however, remain suspect for those illnesses that occurred in the beginning of the outbreak – April, May and early June.

For every one confirmed case there are 30 unconfirmed cases, bring the real number of people affected by the outbreak, at this point, to around 30,000.

FDA officials warned American consumers to avoid raw, uncooked jalapeno and serrano peppers, but, if they can't avoid them, they should ask retailers and restaurants where their peppers came from.

That is not going to be as easy as they try to make it out to be. A lot of the food imported into the United States does not have country of origin labeling. As demonstrated via a news segment on CNN, a reporter bought jalapeno peppers at a store. There were no labels on the peppers and he couldn't say where they came from. The retailers themselves may not know because of the purchasing chain of that product before it even gets to their individual store.

The food industry itself helped to cause the some of the problem the FDA experienced while trying to isolate the source of the outbreak.

The FDA is short-staffed and underfunded (but they seem to be spending what money they do have unwisely), incapable of carrying out fast and swift investigations to meet the demands of food emergencies. It's budget shortfalls and charges of incompetence of Bush crony appointees, not to mention a reluctance to point the finger at Mexico, have hampered the government agency as well.

The long period of no progress or action on the part of the FDA prompted CNN's Lou Dobbs to call for the impeachment of president Bush for his lack of leadership in the matter and his administration's appointment of such inept FDA officials. Dobbs believed that the FDA seemed to be more worried about damaging the United States' relationship with Mexico than doing its job - protecting the citizens of the United States. The fact that the source has been found in Mexico only adds the strength of his accusations.

For 2008 this is the third food-borne salmonella outbreak in the United States. The first outbreak came in March. At least 50 people in 16 states and Canada became ill from eating cantaloupe imported from Honduras. Previous cantaloupe-borne salmonella outbreaks had originated in Mexico.