Officials Going in Circles Chasing the Source of Salmonella Outbreak As Estimate of Infected People Nears 40,000

The nation’s salmonella outbreak – which was blamed first on contaminated tomatoes, then on spicy jalapeno and Serrano peppers, then on cilantro – has sickened thousands of Americans and exposed the Food and Drug Administration’s inability to find the source of the deadly bacteria.

The outbreak of the food-borne bacteria, which first appeared in April and has infected people in 42 states and Canada, has baffled health officials. Nearly four months into the outbreak, no definite source of the contamination has been identified.

To date, 1,167 cases of salmonella poisoning have been reported – with the bulk of cases coming from Texas (449), Illinois (104) and New Mexico (102). However, officials note that food-borne infections are traditionally grossly under reported, since many infected people suffer through intestinal pains without ever seeing a doctor. Therefore, for every reported case, officials estimate that 30 to 40 cases have gone unreported, putting the number of people possibly infected by the current salmonella outbreak as high as 30,000 to 40,000 – ranking it among the worst food-borne outbreaks in United States history, officials said.

Salmonella sufferers most commonly experience diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps within 12 hours to three days of becoming infected. The illness usually lasts four to seven days. Although most people recover without any treatment, severe infections may occur, particularly in infants, elderly persons, and people with weakened immune systems. In the worst cases, Salmonella may spread from the intestines to the bloodstream, requiring treatment with antibiotics.

Farmers Angered, Consumers Unnerved by Slow Progress on Solving Outbreak

The government’s inability to identify a source of the bacteria has frustrated farmers, who have been unable to get their crops into grocery stores, and scared consumers, who are left unsure of which foods are safe to eat. The government’s warnings about the salmonella outbreak crippled the tomato industry just as harvesting from the summer growing season was in full swing. Instead of stocking grocery store shelves, farmers saw their valuable crops rotting in the fields or in the back of delivery trucks, stalled in storage warehouses waiting for the outbreak to be brought under control.

An estimated $250 million in tomato crops could be lost nationwide as a result of the salmonella warnings, industry officials said.

Delay Blamed on the Nation’s Complicated Food-Distribution System

Federal and state officials have blamed the complexity of the nation’s produce-distribution system for slowing efforts to identify the source of the recent salmonella outbreak. With thousands of farms inside and outside the United States producing food consumed by millions of Americans, tracing tainted food back to a farm, processing facility or other source is not unlike finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Industry executives have been working for years on developing a food-tracking system designed to address such concerns. A system would place barcodes or some other similar identifying marks on containers of food and make it possible to more easily locate produce in real-time for isolation or recall, officials have said. It is hoped that implementation of the tracking system would help trace the sources of contaminated food in cases such as the salmonella outbreak. There currently is no timeline for implementation of the food-tracking system.

Tracking System is Necessary to Ensure Safety of Nation’s Food Supply

In these days of text messaging, downloading music, and other technological advances, it is surprising to learn that government officials still rely on decades-old methods of keeping track of our nation’s food supplies. By employing a more advanced system of tracking food from farms to grocery stores, government inspectors could more efficiently ensure the safety of the food supply and respond to incidents such as the salmonella outbreak.

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