Basil joins suspects in U.S. Salmonella outbreak

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Basil may have joined the list of food suspected in an outbreak of Salmonella food poisoning that has sickened more than 1,000 people, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.

The FDA said Lucky Green Trading Inc. of Garden Grove, California, had recalled all of its Thai basil after random testing had shown it tested positive for Salmonella.

No illnesses were traced to the herb, the FDA said.

"The recall was as the result of a random testing by the FDA which revealed that the finished products contained the Salmonella," the FDA said in a statement.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 1,019 people had become ill in the outbreak, which affects 42 states and Canada.

The basil was grown in Mexico.

Mexican Agriculture Ministry spokesman Marco Antonio Sifuentes said he was frustrated with the U.S. government's investigation.

"First tomatoes, then cilantro, then jalapeno and now this?" Sifuentes told Reuters.

"They are not handling this right and as the agriculture ministry we are asking for a serious and responsible investigation -- not sending out communiques without proof or scientific analysis."

Sifuentes said there had been no official communication from the FDA to the Mexican government.

Mexican agricultural officials said Mexico's tomatoes were free of Salmonella Saintpaul, the strain involved in the outbreak, and said the strain found in the basil may be different.

The CDC said it had been frustrating to try to find the source of the contamination, in part because it involves fresh products that would have been discarded by the time people actually became ill.

TWO DEATHS

People who were ill reported they recently ate raw tomatoes, fresh jalapeno peppers, and fresh cilantro. "These items were commonly, though not always, consumed together, so that study could not determine which items caused the illnesses," the CDC said in a statement.

Some clusters can clearly be linked to jalapenos, the CDC said.