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Officials find tainted jalapeno in Texas facility

BY DELTHIA RICKS | delthia.ricks@newsday.com

8:54 PM EDT, July 21, 2008

Federal health inspectors have found a Mexican-grown jalapeño pepper in a Texas produce facility tainted with the identical salmonella strain linked to 1,251 cases of food-borne illness nationwide.

The discovery produces a "smoking gun" in one of the largest -- and longest -- salmonella outbreaks in U.S. history.

Investigators still do not know where the pepper was contaminated -- at the Texas facility, in Mexico or somewhere else along the circuitous chain of U.S. food distribution. Federal health officials say the outbreak is slowing, despite recording 14 additional cases since Friday.

All consumers now are being warned to avoid jalapeños, except those that have been cooked or pickled. Last week the jalapeño warning was only for people with a compromised immune system.

Dr. David Acheson of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Agricola Zaragosa in McAllen, Texas, is the produce distribution facility where the tainted pepper was found. The company is recalling produce that passed through its building.

People in 43 states have been sickened in the outbreak, which dates to April. Three infections linked to the rare strain were identified in Nassau County. Six were confirmed in Suffolk.

Although tomatoes have been cleared as safe, they have not been exonerated from a role in earlier phases of the outbreak.

"The question of whether tomatoes passed through this facility at some point is something that inspectors are looking into," Acheson said.

Robert Keane, spokesman for Stop & Shop supermarkets, said warnings, such as the one released yesterday by the FDA, are posted on the company's Web site. "We follow the lead of the FDA," Keane said.

Joseph Forte, vice president of perishables at King Kullen's headquarters in Bethpage, said the company never buys fresh jalapeños from Texas.

"We buy most of our vegetables from Long Island," Forte said. "When Long Island produce is not available, we buy from New Jersey. We always go to the next closest neighbor.

"Even with tomatoes and the big controversy," he said, "our on-the-vine tomatoes were from Canada or Long Island."