The Salmonella outbreak that federal investigators traced to imported jalapeño peppers has now reached a category of food most shoppers would never associate with a pepper: refrigerated chicken wraps, burritos, and prepared salads, regulated not by the Food and Drug Administration but by the Department of Agriculture.
On August 8, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service issued a public health alert for meat and poultry products containing FDA-regulated jalapeños that may be contaminated with Salmonella. The agency said it expects additional downstream products to be identified as the ingredient recall progresses.
