Not My Salsa! Locals Facing Pepper Scare
By Ashley Meeks, Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M.
Jul. 12–To read the latest news release from the Food and Drug Administration on the salmonella outbreak, click here.
LAS CRUCES — James Ditmore has no regrets about the jalapeno pizza he enjoyed Wednesday night.
“People should eat green chiles and jalapenos every day. They’re healthy for you and full of vitamin C,” said Ditmore, a Las Cruces marketing specialist with the Department of Agriculture.
That’s despite an updated federal warning that the peppers may be linked to illnesses in the continuing outbreak of salmonella, the largest foodborne outbreak in at least a decade, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are no plans to pull any produce, but the New Mexico Department of Health is investigating more than 100 cases in the state alone.
According to the CDC, “ill persons were more likely to have recently consumed raw tomatoes, fresh jalapeno peppers, and fresh cilantro.”
As a cautionary measure, the Food and Drug Administration is advising the elderly, infants and people with impaired immune systems to avoid eating raw jalapenos and
serrano peppers, and for all consumers to stick to tomatoes grown in safe areas, including New Mexico and bordering Mexican states. Processed foods, like salsa, have not been implicated at all in the outbreak, which has sickened more than 1,000 people country-wide.
“We haven’t heard of any salmonella outbreaks in Mexico,” Ditmore noted. New Mexico grows around 600 acres of jalapenos, probably more than any other state, Ditmore estimated. Most of the peppers on the shelves now are from Mexico and people should be washing those — and all produce — as a matter of habit. “What it comes down to is cleanliness and most of the jalapenos packed in the U.S. and even Mexico, they’re washed and pre-cooled so they’re in the best quality before they ship them.”
Most local jalapeno plants are still sprig-sized and won’t be ready for harvest until the end of the month, said Paul Bosland, professor of horticulture and director of the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University.
“Hopefully by then the FDA can actually come up with an answer,” Bosland said. “The produce around here is quite safe.”
Bosland said it’s possible that more people report outbreaks, but that as long as people wash their produce, they should be fine.
Marcia Nordyke, chairman of Hatch Chile Festival and president of the chamber of commerce in Hatch, said the word needs to get out before consumers needlessly stop buying tomatoes, jalapenos and — the latest suspect ingredient — cilantro altogether.
“We really need to get the FDA to put a lid on it before (consumers) just start hollering,” Nordyke said, especially in a region so enamored of its spicy foods. “If you don’t have your jalapenos, you just don’t have salsa. You’re out your tomatoes, you’re out your jalapenos and you’re out your cilantro.”
Patrick Howard, who teaches agricultural sciences at Las Cruces, said what is evident is how unprepared the country would be if an act of bioterrorism took place.
“We’ve got a salmonella outbreak and we don’t even know where it’s coming from,” Howard said. “Bioterrorism is a real thing that we have to consider.”
Howard said New Mexico’s agriculture, aside from pecans, doesn’t contribute much to the country’s as a whole, “but it’s vital to our state.”
Ashley Meeks can be reached at ameeks@lcsun-news.com
Salmonella outbreak
— See your health-care provider if you think you may be sick with salmonella.
— Symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever and usually start 12 to 72 hours after you have been exposed to salmonella.
— The illness usually lasts four to seven days.
— Most people recover without treatment but some people, including the elderly, infants and those with impaired immune systems, may need hospitalization due to severe diarrhea.
— To report illness or possible tainted tomatoes or other produce, call the New Mexico Environment Department at (505) 476-8600.
Source: New Mexico Department of Health
—–
To see more of the Las Cruces Sun-News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.lcsun-news.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, Las Cruces Sun-News, N.M.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.