FDA: Salmonella Strain Found on a Mexican Farm

Via Reuters.com -

U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors have found samples of Salmonella bacteria at a farm in Mexico that produces serrano peppers, officials said on Wednesday.

They matched the strain that has sicked more than 1,300 people across the United States and parts of Canada, David Acheson, FDA associate commissioner for food protection, told a congressional hearing.

"FDA found Salmonella saintpaul in a sample of serrano peppers and a sample of water from a farm in Mexico," FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek confirmed.

Mexican officials have repeatedly denied that the outbreak, originally blamed on tomatoes but later traced to peppers, could be traced to Mexican farms.

U.S. congressional investigators have accused the FDA of mishandling the case.

Acheson told a hearing of the House Horticulture and Organic Agriculture Subcommittee that the FDA found the unusual strain at the Mexican farm.

On Monday, Colorado health officials said they had found a Salmonella-tainted jalapeno in the home of someone sickened in the outbreak, and a tainted pepper was found in a shipment of jalapenos from Mexico last week.