Restaurant Law Group

The largest outbreak of food poisoning in a decade is officially over, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The outbreak of salmonella, which the FDA still attributes partially to tomatoes early on and then to serrano and jalapeno peppers grown in Mexico and processed in Texas, affected more that 1440 people.

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Even though the FDA acted like they were completely surprised that peppers could have been a source of this summer’s salmonella outbreak, their records reveal several times in the past few months their border inspectors refused shipments of peppers coming from Mexico.
In the past year, eight percent of pepper shipments have had salmonella. Since January, [...]

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Though their samples came from the same pepper field in Mexico, the FDA and Mexico’s labs have announced drastically different results in their investigation into the source of the salmonella saintpaul, which has affected over 1300 Americans.
The FDA maintains that the farm’s water and peppers tested positive for the salmonella strain. Mexico says the water [...]

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Enrique Sanchez, the director of Mexico’s Farm Food Quality Service, criticized the FDA for rushing to a conclusion that a Mexican pepper farm was a source of the recent salmonella saintpaul outbreak. He also maintained that the investigation is not complete so the findings should not have been publicized.
The FDA is standing by its findings, [...]

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The FDA has announced that it has traced back the source salmonella saintpaul outbreak to a farm in Mexico that grows Serrano peppers, and has issued a warning against consuming any Serrano peppers from Mexico, and any foods that may contain it. It is still warning against consuming jalapeno peppers, too.
The FDA is still investigating [...]

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There is so much food coming in to the U.S. from Mexico that food-safety inspectors spend less than a minute inspecting each truck at many border crossings. Now that Mexico has been established as the source of salmonella saintpaul, that critical lapse is getting more and more attention, as it should be.

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The latest news from the FDA regarding the “genetic match” of a jalapeno pepper to the outbreak of salmonella saintpaul may seem like a breakthrough at first, but recent statements by the FDA only serve to highlight the enormity of the task of tracing back to the source and underscore the futility of keeping the [...]

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Peppers are now the prime suspect in the salmonella outbreak, which has slowed imports of jalapenos from Mexico almost to a standstill. Grocery chains are posting warning signs, though many are still selling them, and restaurants are starting to cut back, too. According to importers, soon restaurants won’t be able to even get them.
Meanwhile, consumers [...]

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Mexican health officials are traveling to Washington to meet with FDA officials to demand that Mexican tomatoes be cleared of any connection to the recent salmonella outbreak. Mexico’s own investigations have found no trace of salmonella. Interestingly, the FDA’s results have still not been published.

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In a recent study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health (before the tomato salmonella epidemic), a majority of Americans said that they believe the food supply is safe, though they’re not particularly comfortable with foods imported from Mexico or China.
Those responding that America’s food supply was either very safe or somewhat safe topped [...]

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