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Minnesota Department of Health Finds Source of Salmonella Saintpaul Outbreak

By Pritzker | Ruohonen

The FDA needs to get some training from the Minnesota Department of Health. 

The Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak that the FDA initially traced to tomatoes has 1279 confirmed cases to date. People started getting sick in April and the numbers have continued to climb fast.  The FDA started looking at other foods as the possible source of the outbreak, but the investigation was going nowhere until people from Minnesota got sick and the Minnesota Department of Health got involved.

According to a story in today’s StarTibune by Josephine Marcotty and Maura Lerner, the Minnesota Department of Health traced the source of the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak to jalapeno peppers in less than two weeks:

Minnesota health officials first learned of a salmonella outbreak in the state on June 23. By July 9, they were on the phone with their federal counterparts making it "crystal clear" it was not tomatoes but jalapenos that were the likely source, said Kirk Smith, head of foodborne diseases at the Health Department.

Smith said that by mid-June, federal investigators already had begun to think tomatoes were not the sole culprit.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials still have not completely ruled out tomatoes. Data indicate jalapeno peppers caused some illnesses but not all, said FDA spokesman Mike Herndon in an e-mail interview.

In Minnesota, the break came when 27 people who ate at the same Twin Cities restaurant fell ill from the exact rare salmonella strain in the national outbreak.

On Monday, federal officials said they found the same strain on a jalapeno pepper in a giant produce warehouse in McAllen, Texas -- the same warehouse identified by Minnesota investigators weeks ago.

"What happened in Minnesota should be the norm," said Mike Osterholm, University of Minnesota foodborne illness expert and an adviser to state and federal health agencies. "They did it quickly and they did it effectively and they were able to trace back what nobody else was able to trace back."

Read the full story, “'Team Diarrhea' helped state crack salmonella case.”

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on July 24, 2008 (boomark / email).