NightBlogger

When officials at the Food and Drug Administration announced they had found salmonella on a Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper, it meant investigators finally had a solid lead on a trail that seemed to have grown cold. State health officials in New Mexico first picked up on multiple people getting sick from the same subtype of salmonella — called salmonella Saintpaul — back in April. They reported the cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. There, officials analyzing information coming in through an electronic surveillance system began to see that, in pockets around the country, many more states were seeing an unusual increase in cases of salmonella Saintpaul. More

Government inspectors finally have a big clue in the nationwide salmonella outbreak: They found the same bacteria strain on a single Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper handled in Texas — and issued a stronger warning for consumers to avoid fresh jalapenos. But Monday’s discovery, the equivalent of a fingerprint, doesn’t solve the mystery: Authorities still don’t know where the pepper became tainted — on the farm, or in the McAllen, Texas, plant, or at some stop in between, such as a packing house. More

Thanks, FDA, who nearly wiped out the tomato industry because of their premature and irresponsible claims. Now hot peppers are on their list of crops to destroy. Truth is the FDA doesn’t have a clue what’s causing these salmonella outbreaks.

WASHINGTON - It’s OK to eat all kinds of tomatoes again, the U.S. government declared Thursday — lifting its salmonella warning on the summer favorites amid signs that the record outbreak, while not over, may finally be slowing. Hot peppers still get a caution: The people most at risk of salmonella — including the elderly and people with weak immune systems — should avoid fresh jalapenos and serranos, and any dishes that may contain them such as fresh salsa, federal health officials advised. More

(NaturalNews) Watching the FDA trip over its own clumsy self while groping for answers on Salmonella is a sad affair. Following the FDA-encouraged destruction of tens of millions of dollars of perfectly good tomatoes, this confused, bewildered agency admits that tomatoes may not have been the problem after all, and it has now set its sights on destroying the peppers industry. Is there no vegetable safe from the destruction of the FDA?

Tomatoes don’t harbor salmonella, by the way. Neither do peppers, onions, cilantro or spinach. Salmonella only festers in factory-farmed animals, folks, and that means the real source of contamination is no doubt some animal factory upstream from the vegetable processing centers. So why isn’t the FDA going after the animal factories that likely caused this whole fiasco? Because making Americans scared of their vegetables is a great way to advance the FDA’s food irradiation agenda which would destroy virtually all the medicinal phytonutrients in plants. More

More than 1,000 people now are confirmed ill from salmonella initially linked to raw tomatoes, a grim milestone Wednesday that makes this the worst foodborne outbreak in at least a decade. Adding to the confusion, the government is implicating some types of hot peppers, too. Certain raw tomatoes — red round, plum and Roma — remain a chief suspect and the government stressed again Wednesday that people should avoid them unless they were harvested in areas cleared of suspicion. But people at highest risk of severe illness from salmonella also should not eat raw jalapeno and serrano peppers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Wednesday. Those at highest risk include the elderly, people with weak immune systems and infants. More

The investigation of a salmonella outbreak in the United States is shifting to the southern border to encompass produce imported from Mexico, CNN reported on Thursday. U.S. health officials are struggling to find the source of the outbreak linked to certain types of tomatoes. There have been at least 922 reported cases of salmonella food poisoning in 40 states and the District of Columbia since mid-April, CNN reported. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has alerted growers and brokers handling their products that, starting on Monday, inspectors will stop shipments from Mexico of ingredients common to Mexican cuisine, CNN reported, citing sources familiar with the investigation. Cilantro, jalapeno peppers, serrano peppers, scallions and bulb onions are among the products to be examined, it said. More

CDC now suspects Salsa, jalapeño peppers, green onions, cilantro.
USA TODAY
Federal investigators retraced their steps Monday as suspicions mount that fresh unprocessed tomatoes aren’t necessarily causing the salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds across the USA. Three weeks after the Food and Drug Administration warned consumers to avoid certain types of tomatoes linked to the salmonella outbreak, people are still falling ill, says Robert Tauxe with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest numbers as of Monday afternoon were 851 cases, some of whom fell ill as recently as June 20, says Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC’s division of foodborne diseases.

The CDC launched a new round of interviews over the weekend. “We’re broadening the investigation to be sure it encompasses food items that are commonly consumed with tomatoes,” Tauxe says. If another food is found to be the culprit after tomatoes were recalled nationwide and the produce industry sustained losses of hundreds of millions of dollars, food safety experts say the public’s trust in the government’s ability to track foodborne illnesses will be shattered. More

Washington Post
Tomatoes carrying a rare form of salmonella that has sickened more than 800 people may still be on the market, federal officials said yesterday, two weeks after they first warned consumers about the risk. Investigators are considering the possibility that other produce may be spreading the bacteria. “We continue to see a strong association with tomatoes, but we are keeping an open mind about other ingredients,” said Patricia Griffin, a top epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More

My guess is the CDC hasn’t a clue what the salmonella source is because the salmonella may have its origins from “the first genetically modified organism (GMO), an E coli bug containing a salmonella gene…created in 1973. They introduced the GM technology to make herbicide resistance crops. “A wide range of plants have been modified, including cotton, oilseed rape and tobacco….Researchers are currently developing GM bananas that would include a dose of hepatitis B vaccine….”

“The source of contamination has been ongoing at least through early June, and we don’t have any evidence that whatever the source is, it’s been removed from the market,” said Patricia Griffin of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Disease detectives at the CDC in Atlanta are double-checking their own probes just in case some other type of produce is really the culprit. “We have also kept an open mind about other possibilities and are looking into other ingredients,” Dr. Griffin said. She wouldn’t identify other potential suspects, except to say that from the beginning some patients have told the CDC the tomatoes they ate were in salsa and guacamole. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 750 people have become ill in an outbreak of Salmonella linked to certain types of tomatoes, U.S food safety officials said on Thursday. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 756 people in 34 states and the District of Columbia have been infected with a rare strain of bacteria known as Salmonella Saintpaul. Of them, 95 people have been hospitalized. The Centers for Disease Control said in a statement that no deaths have been attributed to the illness. “However, a man in his sixties who died in Texas from cancer had an infection with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul at the time of his death. The infection may have contributed to his death,” the CDC said. Investigators are still trying to find the source of the contamination. Health officials said last Friday they expected more people to become ill because the outbreak is probably still under way. More

ABC News
An outbreak of salmonella poisoning linked to raw tomatoes has been traced to Mexico and Florida, according to federal health officials. Officials today said they will send teams of investigators to Mexico and Florida this weekend. They would not identify the farms that are being investigated, stressing that salmonella contamination could have occurred somewhere later along the distribution line.

“We don’t know for certain that the contamination occurred on a farm,” said Dr. David Acheson of the Food and Drug Administration. “The contamination could have occurred upstream of the farm, in a distribution center, or the packing shed or warehouse. And it’s important that we inspect in those areas to rule that out. We cannot assume that the contamination has occurred on a farm.”

A cluster of 285 salmonella cases has been reported in Texas in the past week, and federal and state officials there are working to determine the cause. All told, authorities have identified 552 people infected with salmonella in 32 states and the District of Columbia since April 10, according to the Centers for Disease Control. More than 50 people have been hospitalized. No deaths have been attributed to the outbreak. More

The FDA may never find the source because the salmonella may have its origins from “the first genetically modified organism (GMO), an E coli bug containing a salmonella gene…created in 1973. They introduced the GM technology to make herbicide resistance crops. “A wide range of plants have been modified, including cotton, oilseed rape and tobacco….Researchers are currently developing GM bananas that would include a dose of hepatitis B vaccine….”

WASHINGTON, June 18 (UPI) — The head of U.S. food safety efforts says it’s possible the government will never track down the source of the recent tomato salmonella outbreak.

David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration’s “food safety czar,” says that’s because fresh produce like tomatoes aren’t consistently labeled as to origin, and also because the outbreak, which sickened 277 people and hospitalized 43, is so widespread, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

Acheson said that definitively pinning down where the bacteria originated may be impossible because, unlike jars of peanut butter, which were also subjects of a salmonella scare, individual tomatoes typically don’t have information about their origins. More

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Export-quality tomatoes labeled «Ready to Eat» in English flooded Mexico City markets on Thursday after a salmonella scare in the U.S. stopped them from crossing the border.
There is no proof that Mexico provided the contaminated tomatoes that caused the alarm. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is still hunting for the source of the outbreak that has sickened at least 167 people in 17 U.S. states since mid-April.

The FDA has cleared imports from at least six countries but not Mexico, which sends 80 percent of its tomato exports to the United States. Florida tomatoes are also under suspicion. But some U.S. consumers already associate the outbreak with Mexican produce, and exports from Baja California came to a halt this week. Read More

By WCNC Staff
E-mail Us: NEWS@WCNC.com
RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina has been added to a growing list of states affected by the tomato salmonella outbreak.

Someone from North Carolina has tested positive for salmonella. That person is recovering.

Health officials say that tomatoes from North Carolina aren’t affected. Officials believe the person who fell ill was exposed to bad tomatoes while traveling to Texas.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. health officials on Wednesday said they are still receiving reports of people falling ill from eating Salmonella-tainted tomatoes and that they now have 167 reported cases from 17 states. Representatives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they are continuing to search for the source of the Salmonella outbreak, which has hit hardest in New Mexico and Texas. David Acheson, FDA associate commissioner for food protection, said the latest onset of illness reported to the agency was May 27. More

“Officials are saying there are bad tomatoes out there, but they can’t find them, they don’t know where they are from,” said Jim Mills, sales manager at Produce Express in Sacramento, which supplies fruits and vegetables to hundreds of local eateries. He said his office fielded more than 300 calls Monday from anxious customers. The outbreak was first spotted in New Mexico and Texas, where investigators identified 57 tomato-related salmonella infections, apparently from a common source, between April 23 and June 1. In the past week, genetic testing has linked dozens of additional salmonella infections in other states to the same source.

At this time of year, according to industry experts, most red round, red Roma and red plum tomatoes sold in California and across the country come from just two regions: Florida and Mexico. Since the FDA has been unable to narrow its investigation to a particular farm or packing operation, all three of the popular-variety tomatoes from those areas are suspect. More

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has spread to 16 states, federal health officials said Saturday. Investigations by the Texas and New Mexico Departments of Health and the U.S. Indian Health Service have tied 56 cases in Texas and 55 in New Mexico to raw, uncooked, tomatoes.

“We’re seeing a steady increase,” Deborah Busemeyer, New Mexico Department of Health communications director, said Saturday. An additional 50 people have been sickened by the same Salmonella “Saintpaul” infection in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. More

ATLANTA (AP) — An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has now been reported in nine states, U.S. health officials said Tuesday.

Lab tests have confirmed 40 illnesses in Texas and New Mexico as the same type of salmonella, right down to the genetic fingerprint. An investigation by Texas and New Mexico health authorities and the Indian Health Service tied those cases to uncooked, raw, large tomatoes.

At least 17 people in Texas and New Mexico have been hospitalized. None have died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More

Fox News
CDC officials said dry dog food may be an under-recognized source of illness in humans, and they are unsure how the bacteria got into the dog food. Usually, Salmonella comes from undercooked meats and eggs. “They are a number of possible ways that that could happen,” said Dr. Casey Barton Behravesh, a CDC epidemiologist, who co-authored a report on the finding. “That’s something we are still trying to figure out.”

Humans became infected with Salmonella in 2006 and 2007 from dry dog food produced by Mars Petcare in Pennsylvania. Dogs were not affected, according to the May 16 issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, but a number of those affected were infants. Siegel said the strain of salmonella found in the dry dog found, S. Schwarzengrund, is of particular concern because the CDC has found it to be resistant to some antibiotics including Cipro. Read more