Did Chili Peppers From Mexico Make Them Sick?

During the summer of this year at least 1,440 people in the U.S. became ill with a rare strain of salmonella. The U.S. FDA at first blamed tomatoes, but ended their investigation saying that the strongest evidence pointed to jalapeno and serrano peppers imported from Mexico.

At that point a lot of people in Mexico began saying such things as "no way" and "they aren't making us sick and we eat them all the time." Then they began saying things like "In the U.S., they have weak stomachs, everything makes them sick." And, "Mexico has one of the best cuisines in the world. In the U.S. they don't understand, they have hamburgers and hot dogs. That's not a tradition, that's just junk."

Regardless of whether the real culprit was chili peppers or something else, I'm certain the people who got sick just wanted to get well. Some of them no doubt also want to know what happened and what, if anything, the government is going to do to protect everyone in the future.

Well, it's not a situation that has easy answers. The Associated Press wanted to know more about today's "system" of farms, processing plants, warehouses, import/export regulations, distribution, etc. to help us understand what is involved and what is actually happening with respect to chili peppers coming into the U.S. from Mexico.

The AP published their report a couple of days ago, and yesterday I summarized their findings and added some comments of my own in a newsletter on our support website. If you want to know more about the "system" as reported by the AP, use the link provided below to go to the newsletter page on our website, and then click on the title, "Few Safeguards for Mexican Produce Heading North." It's an interesting situation, and something every chilehead will want to know to continue being an expert on all things chili. Perhaps some of us should even get involved through our elected representatives. What do you think?

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