Contaminated jalape\u00f1os sparked an outbreak of salmonella across states, including cases in California, prompting at least two popular Mexican-style restaurant chains to pull their supply of peppers imported by a San Diego-based distributor that has been identified as the likely source of the contamination.<\/p>\n
Between June 19 and July 20, at least 345 people in 27 states were infected with a strain of the salmonella bacteria, including 36 people who were hospitalized, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration<\/a>. Authorities did not provide the number of cases in California.<\/p>\n Contracting salmonella could result in diarrhea, nausea, headache and stomach cramps. But more severe symptoms could develop such as prolonged diarrhea and a fever higher than 102 degrees, bloody diarrhea, vomiting, the inability to keep fluids down and dehydration, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>. <\/p>\n During the FDA\u2019s investigation into the outbreak, officials interviewed 191 afflicted people, and 177 (93%) reported eating at a Mexican-style restaurant before their illness, between June 14 and July 14. <\/p>\n The restaurants where sickened people dined included Chipotle Mexican Grill and Qdoba, whose jalape\u00f1os are supplied from San Diego-based Coast Citrus Distributors. <\/p>\n FDA officials conducted a trace-back investigation \u2014 a process in which officials trace food that ill people report eating all the way back to the farm or production facility \u2014 and found the likely source of the outbreak was a grower in Sinaloa, Mexico, that imports its product to Coast Citrus.<\/p>\n Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs and food safety officer with Chipotle, said the company has a \u201crobust ingredient traceability system and, upon learning of a potential Salmonella outbreak in the supply chain impacting several food service retailers, we proactively identified jalape\u00f1os as a potential common ingredient from a common lot, removed them from the restaurants where they had been distributed, and replaced them with product from different growers,\u201d <\/p>\n The company told The Times the contaminated jalape\u00f1os were sent to several service retailers across states but did not disclose specific restaurants. Chipotle has more than 4,000 locations in the U.S.; California is home to 529 of them. <\/p>\n