U.S. Grown Peppers Not Connected to Salmonella Saintpaul Outbreak

July 25, 2008 – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is advising consumers that jalapeño and serrano peppers grown in the United States are not connected with the current Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak.

However, HHS/FDA continues to advise consumers to avoid raw jalapeño peppers - and the food that contains them - if they have been grown, harvested or packed in México.

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.

HHS/FDA is working with U.S. State regulatory agencies and food-industry groups that represent restaurants, grocery chains and wholesalers to ensure everyone clearly understands the new, narrower advisory.  HHS/FDA will continue to refine our consumer guidance as our investigation continues.

The narrower advisory HHS/FDA is issuing today is based on evidence gathered during a multi-week, intensive investigation conducted in partnership with the HHS 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 peppers originated in México.

Additional traceback and traceforward information obtained this week has led to the determination that the Agrícola Zarigosa produce-distribution center in McAllen, Texas—from where HHS/FDA took the positive pepper samples—was not the original source of the contamination.

HHS/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 or food made from raw serrano peppers until further notice.

For more information:

• U.S. Grown Jalapeño and Serrano Peppers Not Connected to Salmonella Saintpaul Outbreak (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)

Last revised: August 13, 2008