SUNDAY July 6, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- The Food and Drug Administration said its agents will start looking into a range of food items including cilantro, jalapeno and Serrano peppers, scallions and onions imported from Mexico before they enter the U.S. market to see if any would carry salmonella that could potentially serve as the source of the ongoing outbreak in the United States.

The FDA decision came after a couple of months of struggling to identify the source and its incapability of locating the source of contamination has caused great discomfort in tomato growers because tomatoes have been suspected as the source.

But Mexico said on Sunday there is no evidence to suggest that Mexico produce has had anything to do with the U.S. ongoing outbreak, Reuters reported.

Mexican agriculture ministry spokesman Marco Antonio Sifuentes told Reuters that Mexico has not been told yet of any U.S. plan to test Mexican produce starting on Monday as reported by CNN on Thursday.

Sifuentes said, cited by Reuters, that Mexico has not detected salmonella in any of the products that are reportedly to be inspected by the FDA.

In any event, tomatoes are still the prime suspect.   The FDA updated the salmonella outbreak on its website on July 5 saying that "at this time, FDA recommends consuming raw red plum, raw red Roma or Raw red round tomatoes only if grown and harvested from the following areas that have not been associated with the outbreak.”

The types of tomatoes that are safe to eat include cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and tomatoes with the vine still attached, the FDA has said early and the advice is still currently valid.

The outbreak is far away from over yet.   According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the outbreak of salmonella Saintpaul has resulted in 943 cases of illnesses nationwide in 40 states and District of Columbia and at least 130 hospitalizations have been reported since mid-April this year.

The real number of salmonella illness could be much higher. According to the CDC, cited by William Marler, a Seattle, Washington based attorney specializing in food poisoning litigation, the real number could be 38.5 times higher because many patients do not go to hospitals and many of those who do go to hospital may not have their stool tested for salmonella, meaning that as many as 36,000 people have fallen ill in the outbreak.

The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Alabama (2 persons), Arkansas (10), Arizona (45), California (8), Colorado (12), Connecticut (4), Florida (2), Georgia (24), Idaho (4), Illinois (93), Indiana (14), Iowa (2), Kansas (17), Kentucky (1), Louisiana (1), Maine (1), Maryland (29), Massachusetts (22), Michigan (7), Minnesota (8), Missouri (12), New Hampshire (4), Nevada (11), New Jersey (9), New Mexico (98), New York (28), North Carolina (10), Ohio (7), Oklahoma (23), Oregon (10), Pennsylvania (8), Rhode Island (3), South Carolina (1), Tennessee (8), Texas (356), Utah (2), Virginia (29), Vermont (2), Washington (4), Wisconsin (10), and the District of Columbia (1). One ill person is reported from Ontario, Canada, who felt ill on the day he returned from a trip to the U.S., according to the CNN.

Tomatoes, often Roma, plum and round tomatoes, have a history of causing salmonella outbreaks in the United States.   But Saintpaul that has caused the current outbreak is not a common strain that causes outbreaks.  In the U.S. no more than 400 cases of S. Saintpaul are reported each year.

Salmonella rarely causes death and it can cause diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain. The symptoms disappear in a few days without any treatment. But the illness can be a risk for young children, the elderly and those who have had their immune system compromised.