Georgia Pushes Back on FDA’s Pepper Warning

State Department of Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin is ready to take on the federal government over jalapeño peppers.

If Georgia-grown jalapeño peppers prove free of the salmonella strain that has caused the widespread outbreak, Irvin said he will ask supermarkets to put Georgia's peppers back on their shelves.

Such a request would run counter to the decision Monday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that raw jalapeño and serrano peppers should not be sold or served, and instead discarded.

The FDA's advisement came after their researchers found a single pepper carrying the Salmonella Saintpaul strain in a distribution center in McAllen, Texas.

"I don't want to be too harsh on Food and Drug, but we think that they're overreacting," Irvin said Wednesday.

Irvin has sent agriculture department staffers to collect samples from Georgia farms. Results should be available by Monday at the latest, spokesman Arty Schronce said.

"We feel that ours will be safe to consume," Irvin said.

jalapeños are not a particularly important crop in Georgia and, actually, the growing season is over in the state, said Wanda Hamilton-Tyler, a co-owner of Southern Valley Fruit and Vegetable in Norman Park. Still, the recall did not sit well with her.

"We fear that kind of thing all the time," she said. "It costs us about $10,000 to grow an acre of peppers."

FDA spokesman Michael Herndon said in an e-mail message that he could not comment on a statement that wasn't made to the FDA. He referred to the FDA's Monday statement that "since a recall will not immediately remove all potentially contaminated peppers from the food supply, FDA is also asking consumers to avoid eating raw jalapeño peppers or foods made from raw jalapeño peppers until further notice in order to prevent additional cases of illness."

Georgia isn't alone in its desire to push back on the FDA's pepper warning. Other states have similar frustrations as Irvin, who said he participated in a conference call Tuesday with other state agriculture heads and said "there was great concern all the way from New Jersey to the West Coast."

Source: The Atlanta Journal Constitution