Restaurant Law Group

David Acheson
FDA lead investigator David Acheson explains on NPR how the FDA didn’t exactly get it wrong in their salmonella search, pinpointing tomatoes first, and now investigating jalapenos. He maintains the tomatoes were guilty, but now all of the suspect crop has been either eaten or destroyed.

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What has been suspected for over a month and has been known for a couple of weeks is now officially official. The FDA has lifted its warning on all tomatoes and is instead telling those with particularly weak immune systems to stay away from jalapeno and serrano peppers.
So far, the number of people affected (officially) [...]

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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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With an astounding eight percent of consumers surveyed saying they would never eat tomatoes again, even if it’s discovered that the fruit had nothing to do with the recent salmonella outbreak, the produce industry is looking to the FDA to help them make some changes.
The changes being sought would make it easier to traceback the [...]

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Now that the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has announced that tomatoes may not be the only source for the salmonella epidemic that has affected more than 850 people, the search is on for other sources, starting with foods that are commonly eaten with tomatoes (bacon? lettuce? mayo?).
If it turns out not [...]

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USA Today has published a timeline from when the first salmonella case was reported in New Mexico (April 10) to when a pattern was discovered (May 19) to when warnings were posted and so forth. You can view the response as timely or not, possibly depending on your view of federal regulation in general.

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Right now, the Food Safety Act of 2007 is under consideration in the House. (The fact that it’s well into 2008 is not that surprising, but thanks for noticing.) The Act gives the FDA and the USDA the power to issue a mandatory recall of contaminated food. What’s missing from the act, according to an [...]

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Just in case you were thinking that salmonella from tomatoes was the only illness in the entire country, here’s some news for you. A YMCA camp in Colorado was closed because 72 campers and 15 staff were sickened by what officials believe is a norovirus. That’s 87 folks in one spot! Though the tally for [...]

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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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The FDA officially cleared Mexico’s Baja California as the source of the salmonella in tomatoes because people started getting sick before they had been harvested. The same is true for the fields of northern Florida, one of the other suspected sources.
Meanwhile, Mexico is threatening to sue for damages as its tomato crops have been quarantined [...]

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