Pistachio Recalls Continue Amid Salmonella Threat, But Still No Reports of Illnesses

Recalls of food products containing pistachios continue to pile up as officials say they fear some of the nuts are tainted with salmonella bacteria, but one key ingredient to a serious outbreak of contaminated food still is missing: Reports of people actually becoming sick from eating contaminated pistachios.

Weeks after traces of salmonella bacteria were detected in nuts from a California-based pistachio processor and millions of pounds of nuts were recalled, there still are no confirmed cases of food poisoning linked to the suspected contamination.

Dozens of food companies have ordered all types of pistachios – roasted and unroasted, shelled and not shelled — as well as numerous brands of cookies, candy, trail mixes, nut mixes, and other products containing the nuts pulled from store shelves due to concerns about possible contamination.

Recalled Products List Grows

There are now 504 pistachio products on the recall list posted on the Food and Drug Administration’s website, which is updated daily with new product recalls. The whole situation comes just months after contaminated peanut butter and peanuts were named in a massive FDA action linked to salmonella contamination. That outbreak eventually was linked to nine deaths, nearly 700 illnesses, and the largest food recall in U.S. history involving about 3,200 products.

California Company at Center of Controversy

Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Inc., the second-largest processor of pistachios in the United States, is the focal point of the emerging pistachio-salmonella threat. Kraft Foods, which used Stetton nuts in its food products, notified authorities earlier this month that it had detected salmonella in Setton’s products.

That discovery led to sweeping recalls and FDA inspections of Setton’s facilities. The main Setton plant in California turned up traces of salmonella, but a New York plant associated with Setton turned up clean.

No Illnesses Reported

However, there still have been no confirmed cases of food poisoning from Setton pistachios. Salmonella is a common form of food poisoning that most often causes mild to moderate abdominal pain, vomiting, fever, and diarrhea in healthy individuals. However, in the elderly, young children, the frail, and people with weakened immune systems, salmonella can produce deadly symptoms.

Most of those who died from salmonella poisoning in the peanut outbreak were elderly, frail residents of nursing homes where peanut butter and snack crackers containing peanuts were served.

Is the FDA Being Proactive or Guilty of Overkill?

The current salmonella scare tied to pistachios is the first full-blown test of the FDA under President Barack Obama, who came into office months after the peanut outbreak had developed. The agency’s response under Obama has been markedly different. The public has been warned, hundreds of food products have been recalled, but we’re still waiting for even a single report of an illness to be associated with the supposed outbreak.

So the question is: Is the FDA’s response a proactive, forward-looking approach to tackling a potential problem that has the ability to sicken hundreds, if not thousands, of consumers? Or is the FDA taking a sledgehammer to an isolated, maybe even perceived, problem that would be better dealt with using a scalpel?

We agree with breaking from the past policies, when the FDA seemed to adopt a wait-and-see approach to contaminated food outbreaks and only jump into action with consumers reported becoming ill. But this handling of the pistachio “outbreak” is starting to seem like overkill.

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