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Mexico Claims Mangos Contaminated With Salmonella Did Not Come From Them
Mexico’s government has denied that mangos exported to the United States and Canada were contaminated with salmonella, and said that the bacteria strain detected in those countries “is different from any strain found in Mexico.”
United States and Canadian health authorities – the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency – issued separate alerts in August about the Mexican fruit exported by the Agricola Daniella mango company because of its suspected contamination with Salmonella Braenderup.
“Following exhaustive work by the health and epidemiological agencies, the installations of the Mexican company showed no contamination with the strain causing an outbreak in the neighboring countries to the north,” Mexico’s Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food Secretariat said in a statement.
It said that taking part in these phytosanitary investigations to corroborate the findings of Canadian and U.S. authorities were federal agencies in charge of health protection and preventing epidemiological risks.
The secretariat said that in the results, “no contamination with the strain that caused an outbreak in the neighboring countries to the north was found in the installations of the Mexican company.”
It added that as part of the investigation it made a thorough inspection of the production and packing areas of the Agricola Daniella packaging plant looking for traces of the Salmonella Braenderup strain, during which 14 double samples were taken and “in none of them was any evidence of the bacteria found.”
In conclusion, the communique said, “the studies carried out by Mexican authorities show that no information exists that would allow the outbreak in the United States and Canada to be associated with any Mexican product.”
Nonetheless, the secretariat said that Mexican authorities are waiting for their counterparts in the neighboring countries to the north “to present scientific evidence for their statements and are ready to continue collaborating with the investigation in progress.”
Published in Notitas de Noticias
2012-09-17 02:00:45
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