The search for the source of what federal officials are calling the largest outbreak of food-borne illness in decades changed course yet again Wednesday with a warning against the consumption of hot peppers.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is advising the young, old and those with impaired immune systems to avoid fresh jalapeoo and serrano peppers. The announcement comes 12 days after federal officials backtracked on statements that tomatoes are most likely responsible for the outbreak of a rare strain of salmonella that has sickened more than 1,000 people since April.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still stands by its warning that consumers avoid certain varieties of tomatoes, although it acknowledges that all major growing areas have been cleared. The June 7 advisory has rocked the produce industry and cost tomato growers hundreds of millions in lost sales.
But CDC officials said a statistical analysis has found that some who got sick with salmonella saintpaul had eaten either jalapeoos or tomatoes, or both. The agency also is investigating fresh cilantro, but no warning has been issued for that herb.
Multiple sources of contamination are a possibility, the FDA's David Acheson said. If a processor's system were contaminated or a farm were using contaminated water to irrigate fields, cross-contamination could occur. Processors might have been dealing in tomatoes "in the April-May time frame and then they switched to peppers in the May-June time frame," Acheson said.
The CDC advisory notes that healthy people also might want to avoid the spicy peppers.
The outbreak continues to spread. The number of people sickened hit 1,017 confirmed cases Wednesday, and 203 have been hospitalized, the CDC's Robert Tauxe said. "That makes this ongoing outbreak the largest in the last 20 years," he said.
Canned, bottled or jarred chili peppers are not a risk because the canning and bottling process kills the salmonella bacteria.
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