The Food and Drug Administration continues to finger fresh vegetables in a now not-so-recent E. Coli outbreak. Having flunked out tomatoes, now declaring them safe, they have named jalapeno peppers as a possible culprit.
The only small problem is that they had no proof on tomatoes, and they have none on japapenos. They are costing producers, wholesalers, retailers and restauranteurs tens of millions of dollars in lost sales and lost inventory, but have solved nothing. Denver suupermarket chain King Soopers, the local Kroger affiliate, has pulled all fresh jalapeno peppers off his produce counters--not only losing the perishable inventory, but also the sales from customers who buy them.
This is happening across the country--all for some bureaucrat's hunch, but with no proof.
Jalapeno peppers are an even poorer suspect than tomatoes were. With capacin that makes them hot, it also kills a very weak pathogen like E. Coli. Cooking also kills E. Coli, and most japapenos are cooked. Any food with acid, like tomatoes, was also a poor suspect, as the acid in tomatoes was strong enough to kill E. Coli.
The FDA dimbulbs should ask a farmer, rather than destroy farmers and an industry, when they have no solid scientific grounds for doing so. Meanwhile, those got sick with suspected E. Coli--they're well by now, and have no answers for what happened to them.
And FDA never has to say they're sorry.
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