WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is re-examining the safety of a culinary staple found in every restaurant, food manufacturing plant and home kitchen pantry: spices.
In the middle of a nationwide outbreak of salmonella illness linked to black and red pepper — and after 16 separate U.S. recalls since 2001 of tainted spices — federal regulators met last week with the industry to study the problem.
Americans consumed on average about 3.5 pounds of spices in 2008, up from 1.2 pounds in 1966, USDA records show.
Jeff Farrar, FDA associate commissioner for food safety, said the government wants the industry to do more to prevent contamination. That would include using one of three methods to rid spices of bacteria: irradiation, steam heating or fumigation with ethylene oxide, a pesticide.
Except for red chile peppers, garlic and onions, most spices sold in the United States are grown overseas, harvested by farmers from small plots of land or grown wild and gathered from different areas, where pollution and water problems can create contamination hazards.
“You can import shoes, tables, lamps and chairs from anywhere in the world and you kind of know what you’re going to get,” said Paul Kurpe of Elite Spice Inc. in Jessup, Md.
“But when you import food, you’re importing their habits, traditions and their standards of food safety.”
