Jalapenos Removed From Kroger Chain Grocery Stores

CINCINNATI (AP) -- The nation's largest traditional grocery chain has removed jalapeno peppers from its stores as a precaution.

Kroger Co. spokeswoman Meghan Glynn said Thursday it decided to halt jalapeno sales after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported Monday that a McAllen, Texas, distributor was recalling jalapenos because they had the potential to be contaminated with salmonella. She said Kroger removed jalapenos the next day, even though none of its supply was from the Texas distributor.

"It's a precautionary measure," she said.

Glynn said Kroger had received no complaints from customers suspecting jalapenos made them ill.

On Monday, the Texas-based grocery chain H-E-B announced a voluntary recall of products containing fresh jalapenos after government inspectors found a strain of salmonella on a single Mexican-grown jalapeno pepper handled in Texas.

H.E. Butt Grocery Co., based in San Antonio, also said its move was precautionary. The privately held grocer operates more than 300 stores in Texas and Mexico.

The government is warning against eating fresh jalapenos or products made from them while it continues to investigate a national salmonella outbreak initially linked to tomatoes.

The Texas distributor, Agricola Zaragoza, suspended sales of fresh jalapenos and recalled those shipped since June 30. It said those shipments were made to Georgia and Texas.

Cincinnati-based Kroger operates nearly 2,500 supermarkets and multi-department stores in 31 states, some under local banners such as Ralphs, Fred Meyer, Fry's, and Dillons.

Comments

[Tator]

To bad you city folk are to dense to grow your own and can them.

[Cathexis]

Gee, suddenly the "burdensome cost" of some baseline regulation appears mighty reasonable, when compared to the cost of all of this chaos and lack of accountability/traceability!

Something for the rabid Rightwing to consider the next time they are busy labeling something "pro-Business" or "anti-Business." Seems as if regulation would have been "Pro-Business!"

[deepintheheartoftejas]

Damn, I went grocery shopping today and there weren't any jalapenos to be found... nor any serranos! I cook with them all the time, mixing them in scrambled eggs and omelets in the morning, adding them to salads and ground meat for other meals. Fortunately, other chiles are just coming into season. I grabbed some thai chiles, even though they're hotter than I prefer, and poblanos, which are tasty but barely hotter than bell peppers.

Still, it's only a minute number that have infected anyone in the past 3 months. They ruined tomato growers this year, now it's time to ruin the chile growers too.

[midtown]

This is turning into a Lou Dobbs wet dream with all this false reporting.

ONE JALAPENO PEPPER, grown in Mexico, was discovered to have picked up salmonella at a Texas factory.

ONE JALAPENO PEPPER. Not all jalapeno peppers.

So the blame is going to Mexico and all jalapeno peppers, instead of looking at what else that Texas factory is doing.

[jahzilla]

McBusheep will likely blame it on the Democrats, simply to woo Hispanics.

[Hattie]

Why don't they put porta potties in the fields so the workers will stop crapping in the veggies?

[danoj]

NAFTA hard at work giving Americans samonella.

[Annette]

Too expensive for the growers.

[JohnFromCensornati]

You'd think the FDA would have the good sense to blame the whole thing on China since they don't really know what they're talking about.

[surfcitysteven]

I second that emotion John. I have been furious with the incompetence of the FDA on this one since the start. It did actually affect my business in an annoying way. But the farmers that this affected, the FDA has no excuse. And Kroger can go to hell as well. Everytime you hear about a beef recall, Kroger is involved. Why, because they buy the cheapest crap they can to pass it on to you. They are just trying to act concerned now, to take some of the emphasis on the continuing restocking of e.coli on their meat shelves. Unregulated food guarantees a race to the bottom from the producer to the seller.