Posted by:
Tom Lyons, Department of Public Health
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a consumer advisory recommending that consumers avoid eating pistachio products until further notice. The advisory has been issued based on concerns that some pistachio products may be contaminated by salmonella.
Salmonella are germs (bacteria) that can cause a disease called salmonellosis, and can be particularly dangerous for the very young, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems.
The advice by FDA to consumers was triggered by a report from Kraft Foods that its "Back to Nature Trail Mix" was found to be contaminated with Salmonella. A subsequent investigation by the FDA and the California Department of Public Health linked the source of the contamination to pistachios sold by a California company, Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Inc.
Federal health officials do not know at this time whether the Salmonella strains found in the pistachio products are linked to an outbreak of illness. Normally, cases of illness are first identified, then a disease investigation attempts to identify the product causing the illness. But this investigation was prompted by contamination found during routine company product testing rather than through an outbreak investigation.
Like the recent peanut recall, the firm implicated in the FDA advisory is a wholesaler, so it is likely that a number of products will be recalled as more information is gathered during the investigation. The FDA has created a pistachio web site to provide information to consumers, and the agency will also create a searchable database of recalled products.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health is working with the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to gather more information and to determine if there are any cases of illness in our state that can be linked to eating pistachio products.
We will update this post as more information becomes available.
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