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Officials investigating the salmonella outbreak now are looking at jalapeño peppers as a leading suspect for spreading the bacteria that has sickened hundreds across the U.S. over the past three months…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially blamed tomatoes. That led to industry losses of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to the National Restaurant Association, as consumers cut down on consumption and restaurants pulled them from menus.
But as the disease continued to spread, the investigation turned to other foods commonly eaten with tomatoes, in particular to other ingredients used to make salsa. Besides jalapeño peppers, officials are looking at cilantro and Serrano peppers.
The search for the cause of an outbreak that has affected nearly 1,000 people since April 10 has centered on salsa because many of the victims had eaten some. The government is concentrating on fresh salsa prepared at certain restaurants, not processed and canned salsa. Officials continue to decline to name the restaurants…The CDC is focusing on 29 “clusters” of illnesses, Mr. Nowak said. A cluster is created when two or more people become sick within a 10-day period after eating at the same restaurant. Most of the restaurants serve Mexican food, and most of them are not chains.
For three months the bureaucrats in charge of the FDA have focused on avoiding negative comments about restaurants, distributors, Mexican farmers. Just about anyone with an organization representing their business has had their butt politely kissed – while American consumers continued to fall ill with Salmonella poisoning.
I’ve said it before – the FDA is the FEMA of food! They are chartered to protect the food chain that we rely upon for health and nourishment. The politicians at the top turned their back on that mandate a long, long time ago.
Anyone is welcom to ALL OF MY CILANTRO (and the salmonella that may go with it) !!! To me it TASTES LIKE SOAP, AND WILL RUIN A GOOD MEAL !!! I think it ought to be TOTALLY OUTLAWED AND ALL ITS SEEDS DESTROYED !!!
FDA’s Mission Statement
The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. The FDA is also responsible for advancing the public health by helping to speed innovations that make medicines and foods more effective, safer, and more affordable; and helping the public get the accurate, science-based information they need to use medicines and foods to improve their health.
based on the above they are not doing there job ( must be the goverment )
I’ve always said, Mexicans can tell when they are hungry because their asshole stops burning.
I don’t know but i thought the FDA did inspections, When food moved from different locations. I know I have seen an inspection station at the Texas NEW Mexico border and when you fly into this country from any foreign country, Do these (FDA)people NOT ck those big trucks and boats? Seems like that would be the place to ck, You know like cking for drugs, maybe they could make one federal agency like the FDADEA. So things that don’t belong in this country don’t get in this country.
One of the greater scams is the drug companies who lobby and weasel and cajole to get new drugs approved by the FDA – in the “hands off of business” administration – …got a law passed in congress that they can’t be sued over a drug if it was FDA approved!
You jumped on Mexican restaurants as quickly as the FDA jumped on tomatoes, and with just as few facts. How about waiting until they actually figure it out (if they ever do) before flaming, possibly innocent, bystanders.
Bruce C: I hope you don’t mean to imply that private enterprise will chose your safety over a few additional cents of profit. People who don’t believe in government won’t do a good job of running one.
The following is from the the Harpers Magazine article entitled “Hor Air Gods”, December 2007
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“The game is to take profit as close to the poison line as possible. When on occasion profit spills over into poison and someone dies, there is a public wringing of hands (and, in China, death sentences); but soon enough, we’re back in search of that ideal balance between profit and death. We see the same principle at work in agriculture. How much herbicide and pesticide can we use before it starts sickening and killing more than bugs and weeds? This is the religion of “cost/benefit analysis” whose priests are accountants and liability lawyers.”
No I didn’t mean to privatetize the process, as I know u are correct about profit, I guess that Iam upset
that that the Gov is doing such a poor job on so many fronts. The above story is soooo stupid, they dont know Who, What or Where this problem is coming from, Its There job.
FDA has a clear mission and unique Federal role in protecting public health.
FDA is well managed, and has a strong and comprehensive strategic planning process.
This is part of what there statement is, I looked at there web site to find out how much these jokers are costing us and there books are 4 years behind, but there costing us billions.
Our government employees are not immune from the ongoing dumbing-down of America. They still have not found the source of the Antrax mailings from 6 years ago and now the FBI is spending resources on the 36 year old DB Cooper ransom case.
It amazes me the American people aren’t rising up in arms over this general incompetence, but then again, John and Jane Doe are too busy working their asses off and concerned over Britney Spear’s hoochie.
#8 said “…concerned over Britney Spear’s hoochie.”
Here is a good shot of her beaver.
http://tinyurl.com/yuhl6y
The FDA is s freakin’ joke!!! It should be one of the biggest departments of the Government loaded with inspectors to prevent stuff like this from ever happening.
#10 – apiary-guero
>>The FDA is s freakin’ joke!!! It should be one
>>of the biggest departments of the Government
Aw geez, the FDA’s too big, the FDA’s too small, the FDA should be abolished, the FDA should be privatized, the FDA should take over the gummint.
Shoulda, coulda, woulda.
Other than having a 1:1 ratio of FDA inspectors to food eaters, I haven’t heard any constructive criticism of the FDA process.
Obviously, the tomato/ jalapeño/ serrano/ cilantro (whatever)/ shit problem is a tough nut to crack. They tracked down the source of spinach/ shit infections and bagged salad/ shit infections etc. quick as so please. So however the shit is getting ito tomatoes or tomato/based products isn’t straightforward and easy to track down.
Yeah, blame Mexico. Pure racism.
Never mind that the last two major contaminations (lettuce with salmonella and ground beef with e-coli) were purely American contaminations.
You want to blame anyone for massive contmination? Blame American agro-business for concentrating all crops into a very small number of food handlers, where one small contamination can be spread throughout the country. 70% of packaged salad is processed by three factories.
One small benefit of higher oil prices… we should see incidents like this one decrease, because it is getting too expensive to transport stuff 7000 miles although it is available locally.
Just be thankful that someone hasn’t infiltrated a salad factory and sprinkled anthrax on the lettuce over a period of a few days.
@#11 – You could’ve called me apiary (clone, or whatever the fuck you wanted to imply) without butchering my family name. Me saying the FDA is a freakin’ joke is still my comment here because they are. The one agency where more inspectors are needed is the one that is probably under-funded and under-staffed. They don’t need to have one to one inspector ratios but they need to do better than they are now. Maybe you can read this article and see why I made comment:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/03/opinion/03sun1.html?st=cse&sq=fda+in+crisis&scp=1
umm, the issue is and has been with the non local industrialization of food in general… outbreaks and diseases are normal, par for the course… the difference now is that the food is coming from soo many places and being mixed together that it becomes harder and harder to isolate origins…
it seems they are planning on tagging all the food now anyway, so when you shop you will actually know wether your food came from down the street or across the world.
i’m not arguing that either is better, but being able to track sources more effectively since local food isn’t really a reality unless you shop farmers markets is a good position for the consumer to be in, and makes it much easier to track the outbreaks…
the world is run by a few corporations anyway, what did you expect??? they are just here to get the product to you, ethics only becomes relevant when enough negative PR affects the bottom line.
umm, the issue is and has been with the non local industrialization of food in general… outbreaks and diseases are normal, par for the course… the difference now is that the food is coming from soo many places and being mixed together that it becomes harder and harder to isolate origins…
it seems they are planning on tagging all the food now anyway, so when you shop you will actually know wether your food came from down the street or across the world.
i’m not arguing that either is better, but being able to track sources more effectively since local food isn’t really a reality unless you shop farmers markets is a good position for the consumer to be in, and makes it much easier to track the outbreaks…
the world is run by a few corporations anyway, what did you expect??? they are just here to get the product to you, ethics only becomes relevant when enough negative PR affects the bottom line!
#13 – Mr. Apeguero
I had already read that NYT editorial. Very good piece.
And if you wonder why the FDA is underfunded, look to the Chimperor-in-Chief. Imagine how safe food and drugs would be if we’d put the trillion dollars pissed away on the Trophy War to better use.
BTW, an apiary is a bee farm. Not a clone.
@#15 Mister Mustard – Can’t argue with you on that one. This war has sucked all the resources dry from our country. It’ll be tough recovering from this.
I knew apiary was a bee farm but I thought you meant it to mean clone in the context of your comment. Either way, cheers.
The current trend of scary produce is getting out of hand! I understand the franken meat, but WTF how sad is it when we are scared of veggies? The man isn’t doing his job that’s for damn sure!
There was a recent E.Coli scare in the news. But it hasn’t receieved a tenth of the publicity that suspect tomatoes did. Is this how the beef industry boosts it’s commodity value? Dr. Atkins ain’t around anymore to compensate for mad cow scares. His diet plan also got way more publicity that it deserved. And it came right after the UK beef scare settled down a bit. And everybody started wolfing down the beef after that. But Atkins died of a heart condition. So this called his diet plan into question.
Now we have a recession, and just maybe people aren’t eating as much meat as the beef council likes. So…. first lettuce, and then tomatoes gets the blame for sickness. Not really that many people got sick though. I’m sure that more have died in traffic accidents, in that time. But it’s served to keep us away from the salad bars, hasn’t it. And if we’re not eating that, we’re turning back to the burgers and fries, or pizzas, or chicken strips. Whatever is produced by a cabal of meat processors. Veggies farmers aren’t so well represented. Ever hear of a tomato council? And it may be true that the chain restaurants and salsa makers didn’t get the scrutiny they should have. Just the produce growers that supply them. Ignoring that these entities often use mass produce products or ingredients, made elsewhere. So maybe they all got contaminated stuff from such a source. Possibly a foreign one, like China. With Bush on this G-8 tour of late, and the Olympics coming up, they’ve been careful not to blame China for much of anything lately. Government controlled News.
Make up your mind folks. You want more government or less?
Disclaimer: I know several FDA people – one is a good friend. Personally, I think they do a pretty damned good job considering the size of the problem. Could they do a better job? Sure they could. But that would cost a lot more money, too, and then you’d be bitching about that.
I’m not saying they’re perfect or even close to it. Show me a bureaucracy ANYWHERE that is? They are chronically underfunded and roundly regaled when they try to innovate. How many of you like the irradiation your food gets? Oh, that’s right. When it was suggested, you screamed and hollered. Now we don’t have it in any major way. Despite the fact it is absolutely safe and adds a major layer of protection to the food supply.
By the way: Wanna enjoy tomatoes (or cilantro or jalapenos, etc)? WASH the durned things. Don’t eat those with damaged skins. WASH, wash, wash.
A lot of mexican bashing lately here?
/me pulls up a chair and chomps on some more popcorn..
I’m no expert of food contamination, but… aren’t fresh tomatoes fairly acidic? I wouldn’t ever suspect them first. Call me racist(the word doesn’t mean anything) but I am afraid of food that comes from third-world half-assed countries like Mexico. Did soemone avoid indicting the peppers because it would reflect badly on Mexican produce?
“Make up your mind folks. You want more government or less?”
I’m glad you asked. More government please, and this time let’s have people running it who actually believe in good government – rather than eliminating good government in favor of a country owned by big corporations.
——————-
In the last year of the civil war, on November 21, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln looked back on the growing power of the war-enriched corporations, and wrote the following thoughtful letter to his friend Colonel William F. Elkins:
“We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. The best blood of the flower of American youth has been freely offered upon our country’s altar that the nation might live. It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country.”
“As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.”
White men can’t handle real mexican food, period =3
Either the food is Mexican or it was picked by a Mexican. Maybe they need to get over this fact and find a long term solution to the problem.
#25 – Considering how bland most “real” Mexican food is, how can you blame us? Personally, I find that the best real Mexican is mole-based sauces.
The FEMA of food seems fair. They were willing to bleep over American farmers but not to say fresh made salsa which isn’t fair to anyone. Just wash the food real good first folks.
Bush has got to have done more for incompatence in government than any other president I can recall.
When in doubt, blame Mexico, mexicans, dark skinned latinos, people who look at whites, talk in spanish and laugh, and people who associate with mexicans.
It has nothing to do with the fact that the Bushie run FDA hasn’t bothered to actually inspect vegetables.
Blame the brownskins!