Federal officials on Monday warned consumers nationwide to avoid all fresh jalapeño peppers after finding a contaminated pepper in a Texas packinghouse – a big break in the hunt to find the cause of 1,251 cases of salmonella poisoning in 43 states.
Six weeks ago, when the Food and Drug Administration issued a similar alert about tomatoes – in connection with the same outbreak – Sacramento-area restaurants, distributors and supermarkets hustled to pull the potentially contaminated produce.
This time, they aren't buying it.
Raley's Stores and Save Mart Supermarkets don't plan to remove jalapeños from their shelves. Produce Express, a distributor that supplies vegetables to hundreds of the region's eateries, planned to deliver jalapeños as usual this morning, along with a notice about the warning. Many restaurants contacted by The Bee on Monday afternoon had heard nothing of the FDA alert. A local pepper farmer called it nonsensical.
"All our jalapeño peppers are grown in California," said Amy Johnston, a Raley's spokeswoman. "At this time, since there's no official recall, we have no plans to remove them."
The FDA's warning is not binding, but companies often treat such an alert like a recall. Pickled and canned peppers and canned salsas are not included in the warning.
Agency investigators found the tainted jalapeño at the warehouse of Agricola Zaragoza, a produce warehouse in McAllen, Texas. Laboratory tests showed the pepper carried the strain of Salmonella saintpaul linked to the ongoing outbreak.
According to the Associated Press, Agricola Zaragoza has suspended sales of fresh jalapeños and recalled those shipped since June 30 – shipments it said were made to Georgia and Texas.
The tainted pepper is the first piece of produce the FDA has been able to link to the illnesses.
"It's the smoking gun that everyone's been looking for," said Jim Gorny, who directs the Postharvest Center at the University of California, Davis.
The pepper was grown in Mexico, but the FDA can't say whether it was contaminated on the farm, in the packinghouse or somewhere in between. The agency can't say yet where all jalapeños shipped from Agricola Zaragoza ended up. In addition, it hasn't determined where all the jalapeños grown on the farm that supplied the Texas packer were shipped. Some may have gone to other distributors and could have been sent to other parts of the country.
Those uncertainties led the agency to issue Monday's consumer alert. It is broader than the June 7 tomato warning, which excluded tomatoes grown in certain states, including California.
"We have got to step up to the plate and protect public health with the science we have today," said FDA food-safety chief David Acheson.
The produce industry immediately criticized the alert as overly broad.
Silverio Castaneda Jr., whose family's farm in Fairfield supplies many of the jalapeños served in Sacramento-area restaurants, was frustrated that his peppers could be branded with the same warning applied to the Mexican-grown peppers that appear linked to the outbreak.
"That's like GM making a whole bunch of cars and then one of 'em gets hit by a plane and suddenly they say all GM cars are unsafe," he said.
Castaneda only began harvesting his peppers in the last few days, so his crop can't be linked to the string of salmonella-related illnesses that began in April, he said.
Last month's tomato warning cost the food industry an estimated $100 million to $250 million. While evidence increasingly points to jalapeños, the FDA says tomatoes remain a possible source of the illnesses, particularly in the outbreak's early weeks. Tomatoes and jalapeños may have been contaminated at the same packing plant, for instance, the agency says.
Produce industry groups say chances are remote that both tomatoes and jalapeños could carry the same strain of salmonella. They are asking Congress to compensate farmers, packers and others who lost money following the tomato warning. Hearings are set for the end of the month.
Only nine Californians are known to have fallen sick with the outbreak strain of salmonella. Several of those people may have eaten contaminated food while traveling out of state.
Jalapeños are a much smaller business than tomatoes. Nationwide retail sales of all fresh chili peppers amounted to $220 million in 2007, according to the Packer, a produce trade journal. The farm value of U.S.-grown tomatoes is about $1.5 billion annually, with retail sales much higher.
Jim Boyce, general manager of Produce Express, distributes 500 to 700 pounds of jalapeños every day to Sacramento Valley eateries. At this time of year, they're all grown locally.
Boyce said he will include a notice of the FDA's new warning in Tuesday's shipments of jalapeños and an explanation of where he gets his peppers and let chefs decide whether to serve them.
"I wonder how much strength the FDA has anymore," Boyce said. "They've really given themselves a black eye" with the tomato warning.
Call The Bee's Jim Downing, (916) 321-1065. The Bee's Mark Glover contributed to this report.
