Salmonella Source: Salsa?

This recipe is ideal to use for tortilla chip dipping but also works well as a flavorful and colorful chili topping.

Salsa Fresca

Photo: Anthony Hall / Istock

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With more than 800 ill from salmonella-contaminated something, investigators are widening their inquiry and focusing on salsa made fresh at local restaurants, according to USA Today.

For weeks, the focus has been on tomatoes, and the Food and Drug Administration has recommended that people avoid eating red round, Roma and plum tomatoes grown in certain states.

Tomatoes aren't off the hook, but other ingredients in salsas, like onions, jalapeños, garlic and cilantro, are now also joining the suspect list. At least, the FDA has asked state investigators to consider the possibility that the outbreak originated with an ingredient other than tomatoes.

Store-bought prepared salsa has not been a suspect. The FDA is only concerned at this point about salsa made fresh by local restaurants whose customers became ill.

All along, the FDA has lowered expectations about finding the source of contamination. It could be that we never know what the culprit in this public health debacle was, or how to prevent it from happening again.

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