“Laboratory testing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has confirmed that both a sample of serrano pepper and a sample of irrigation water collected by agency investigators on a farm in the state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico, contain Salmonella Saintpaul with the same genetic fingerprint as the strain of bacteria that is causing the current outbreak in the United States.”

It is unfortunate that the Minnesota folks couldn’t figure it out faster and blamed Texas packers at first before figuring out it was a problem in Mexico.With so few peppers found contaminated so far (anywhere from 1 to 10 depending on the news report out of several thousand peppers inspected), I’m not convinced that this is the real source or produce item.

Actually, epidemics happen very frequently and usually sicken around a coupel of hundred people at a time in an area. Summertime frequently see produce born infections while winter time frequently see infections caused by unsafe handling. What made this different was the lag time in finding the source source (which recent news reports suggest is not totally identified), the length of the outbreak, the numbers sickened, and the reach of the outbreak.

It is also good to remeber that hand washing produce while a good thing does not solve all problems. Two years ago, both lettuce and spinach were contaminated because they had been irrigated with contaminated water. That meant the Salmonella was inside the produce and part of it. Which meant all the hand washing in the world was worthless because it was in the very fibers of the produce.