Health

Salmonella strain responsible for nationwide outbreak found
by Martina Janeckova

On Wednesday July 30, 2008 federal health officials said that the salmonella strain linked to a nationwide outbreak has been found in irrigation water and in a sample from a batch of Serrano peppers at a Mexican farm. The outbreak has sickened more than 1.300 people since April. Dr. David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety chief, said the farm is in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Earlier, the FDA had traced a contaminated jalapeno peeper to a farm in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Both farms shipped through a packing facility in Nuevo Leon, which is where the contamination could have occurred. Acheson and other officials were questioned at a congressional hearing why the investigation originally focused on tomatoes. Industry representatives complained about their losses and Thomas Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Produce Assn. told the House Agriculture Committee, that “for weeks and weeks, investigators were on trail of the wrong product.” Acheson insisted that the early part of investigation clearly implicated tomatoes. Later it was discovered that only peppers grown in Mexico were connected with the nationwide salmonella outbreak. Now, the focus of investigation is on the two farms in Mexico. The Nuevo Leon farm didn’t grow tomatoes. The Tamaulipas farm grew tomatoes and peppers, but the infected pepper was found at a warehouse in McAllen, Texas and therefore it could have been contaminated along the way. Acheson said samples have been taken from the farm and they are waiting for the lab results. Lawmakers are thinking about reforms to prevent future outbreaks and speed the investigation. These could be improving communication between investigators and the industry, imposing standards for agricultural practices and improving traceability.

by Martina Janeckova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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