Are jalapeno peppers behind salmonella outbreak?

Report says jalapeno peppers probed as source

Salmonella cases climb to 943

Better go easy on fresh salsa for a while!

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has expanded its list of suspects from tomatoes to all the ingredients in freshly-made salsa.

Despite a report that jalapenos could be the culprit behind mass illnesses, CDC spokesman Glen Nowak could not say Saturday what specifically caused the outbreak, adding that investigators "do not rank the ingredients" in salsa.

The FDA announced Saturday there have been 943 reported cases of salmonella in 40 states. That compares to 922 people about two days ago, and 869 reported earlier last week.

"We're still looking at tomatoes as a possible cause," said Nowak, "along with jalapenos and cilantro and other ingredients in fresh salsa." He said they are not looking at packaged, prepared salsa.

Nowak refuted a recent Wall Street Journal report that CDC investigators now consider jalapeno peppers "a leading suspect" in the mystery outbreak that has gone unsolved since mid-April and cost the country's tomato industry an estimated $100 million in losses.

Investigators from the CDC and other health departments around the country are focusing on restaurants where there have been two or more separate instances of people reportedly becoming sick within a 10-day period after eating at the restaurant. At least 130 people have been hospitalized nationwide since the first salmonella illnesses appeared.

"We're working through the holiday weekend and we're hoping we can have something early in the week, more information in terms of what the case controls studies show," said Nowak.

Since news of the outbreak broke in early June and the FDA issued tomato warnings, farmers in Georgia say their business has been crippled by the scare that prompted groceries to pull tomatoes from their shelves and restaurants to take them off their menus.

Two of the nation's biggest tomato customers, burger chains McDonald's and Wendy's have brought tomatoes back, but it's too little too late for Georgia tomato farmers, said Bill Brim, president of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.

"We've lost $600,000 and it's just sickening," said Brim. "Now they're saying it might be jalapenos. I guess they needed another crop to kill. They're just trying to see how many damn people they can put out of business."

Early in its investigation the FDA eliminated Georgia tomato growers as suspects because their first crop of the season had not been harvested when the outbreak began in April.

But that didn't matter, said Brim, because consumers avoided all tomatoes in the scare, and that drove box prices of tomatoes from a high of $17 to $5. "Most of it we just had to throw out," said Brim, who owns a vegetable farm in Tifton.

State agriculture commissioner Tommy Irvin hosted a "tomato sandwich" luncheon last week at the state agriculture department to restore faith in the state's tomatoes. On Saturday, he joined a growing chorus of critics of the federal government's handling of the outbreak.

"They shouldn't have issued a warning about tomatoes unless they knew tomatoes were the source," said Irvin. "They still don't know the source. I think the CDC has egg all over its face on this one."

CNN reported Saturday that starting Monday health inspectors will halt the shipment of ingredients common to Mexican cuisine — tomatoes, jalapeno and serrano peppers, cilantro, scallions and bulb onions — from Mexico to the United States.

The network said the plan was to intercept the food at the border and send samples to laboratories to examine them for salmonella or E. coli. Nowak of the CDC could not confirm the report. Spokespersons for the FDA did not return Saturday calls seeking comment.

Meantime, tomato farmers, packers and shippers fear it could take months to rebuild the nation's $1.3 billion market for fresh tomatoes. Brim said some growers may not plant their usual second tomato crop of the season if the mystery isn't solved by the end of July.

"It's been a real eye-opener how the government and the media can destroy a market," he said. "A real eye-opener."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.