Hot Peppers Added to Warning List in Salmonella Outbreak; At-Risk People Told to Avoid Jalapeno, Serrano

By KAREN HERZOG

The federal government Wednesday warned consumers most at risk of severe infections to avoid eating fresh jalapeno and serrano peppers, in addition to certain types of raw tomatoes, as the investigation into a nationwide salmonella food poisoning outbreak widens.

Now spanning three months, the salmonella outbreak has become the largest outbreak of food-borne illness in more than a decade.

Since April, there have been 1,017 confirmed cases — all with the same rare genetic fingerprint — in 41 states, the District of Columbia and Canada, federal officials reported Wednesday. At least 203 people have been hospitalized.

Wisconsin’s latest tally includes 11 confirmed cases in six counties — one in Milwaukee and two each in Kenosha, Racine, Dane, Outagamie and Pepin counties, according to Paul Biedrzycki, director of disease control and environmental health for the Milwaukee Health Department.

Two deaths in Texas also have been associated with the Saintpaul strain previously thought linked only to tomatoes.

“We continue to get reports of illness every day,” Robert Tauxe, food safety chief for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a telephone news conference Wednesday.

The outbreak surpasses what had been considered the largest of the past decade — 715 salmonella cases linked to peanut butter in 2006, according to the CDC.

While federal food safety officials now have identified hot peppers as a culprit in the current salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, certain raw tomatoes continue to be considered prime suspects, federal food safety officials said Wednesday. Government officials cautioned consumers that raw jalapeno peppers and tomatoes often are used in the preparation of fresh salsa and pico de gallo.

Three recent, large clusters of salmonella cases led officials to point a finger at jalapeno peppers in addition to tomatoes, though so far the government is cautioning only those most at risk of severe infection, including infants, the elderly and those with weak immune systems.

It’s possible that officials may not be able to trace the source in the outbreak, said David Acheson, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s food safety chief. As with all fresh produce outbreaks, tainted items may already be consumed, thrown out, or have rotted before being identified and traced to a producer or processing facility, he said.

“We’ve got a lot of horses working this. . . . It’s just been a spectacularly complicated and prolonged outbreak,” Acheson said.

Officials continue to caution consumers to limit tomato consumption to specific types that have been deemed safe.

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For the FDA’s list of safe tomatoes and other information, go to www.jsonline.com/links.

PAST OUTBREAKS

The toll in the salmonella Saintpaul outbreak linked to tomatoes, and now also to jalapeno peppers, tops what had been considered the largest food-borne illness outbreak in recent years — 715 salmonella cases linked to peanut butter in 2006. Other recent major food-borne illness outbreaks:

– 198 people sickened and three people dead in 25 states — including one death in Wisconsin — from E. coli O157:H7 found in bagged spinach.

– Dozens of people sickened and a 3-year-old South Milwaukee girl dead in a July 2000 E. coli outbreak.

– In the mid-1990s, there were more than 1,000 cases of cyclospora linked to raspberries, and previous large outbreaks of salmonella from ice cream and milk.

Sources: The Associated Press and Journal Sentinel archives

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