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Pistachio Salmonella Investigation Trudges On

By PritzkerLaw

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to investigate what links there are between Salmonella found in contaminated pistachios and the same strain of Salmonella found in ill people whose cases are part of the CDC's collective food poisoning database known as PulseNet.

Recalls of pistachio foods that may be contaminated with the pathogen Salmonella Montevideo are continuing and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is still making daily updates to its searchable database of affected products. 

The CDC, FDA and California Department of Public Health have spent months investigating Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella Inc., Terra Bella, California. A large customer of the company first alerted the government to positive Salmonella tests taken from batches of Setton pistachios. When health officials inspected Setton's facilities, they found Salmonella in critical areas of the facility and the potential for cross-contamination between roasted product and raw product.

No outbreak of illness related to the contamination has been confirmed, but the latest FDA report on the investigation shows some areas of interest. Quoting directly from the report:

Some of the DNA fingerprints of the Salmonella strains from the pistachio products match the DNA fingerprints of Salmonella strains from recently ill persons already in the PulseNet database. This particular strain of Salmonella also has been isolated from a stool sample in a child who developed gastroenteritis and who is reported to have consumed pistachios that were sourced from Setton Pistachio. In addition, this specific Salmonella fingerprint matches a number of other clinical isolates in the PulseNet data base. However, it is important to recognize that when a patient's isolate has a relatively common DNA fingerprint pattern (such as this one) that matches that of a food isolate, it does not necessarily follow that the patient's illness was related to that food. CDC is investigating whether the other cases infected with this strain of Salmonella have had exposure to pistachios from Setton Pistachio.

National food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A., is involved in virtually all major outbreaks of foodborne illness. The firm currently is representing Salmonella victims around the country, including the families of three women who died with Salmonella infections after consuming contaminated peanut products.

If you or someone you know has become seriously ill from food poisoning, please call the law firm at 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or get a free case consultation. 

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on April 19, 2009 (boomark / email).