CORTEZ — A Colorado man sued Wal-Mart today, saying he got sick from salmonella-tainted jalapeno peppers purchased at one of its stores.
The lawsuit says Brian Grubbs of Dolores tested positive for salmonella after he was hospitalized for weakness, weight loss and severe dehydration.
It blames jalapenos peppers his family purchased at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Cortez, about 200 miles southwest of Denver, on about June 26.
The state health department said a jalapeno sold at that store at about that time tested positive for salmonella, but department spokesman Jim Salley declined to say whether or not it was a pepper purchased by Grubbs.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore said she could not comment on the suit because she had not seen it.
She said between June 24 and July 1 — when Grubbs said he bought the jalapenos — a federal Food and Drug Administration consumer advisory on salmonella focused only on tomatoes.
She said Wal-Mart quickly removed “impacted products” after the FDA raised concerns about jalapenos.
The suit seeks unspecified damages from Wal-Mart and an unknown company that supplied the jalapenos to Wal-Mart.
It accuses Wal-Mart and the supplier of negligence for not warning that the jalapenos might have contained salmonella.
A nationwide salmonella outbreak has sickened more than 1,300 people.
