What’s wrong with salsa?

From Nancy Kercheval, Bloomberg.com:

July 5 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. will ban Mexican imports of ingredients commonly used in foods such as salsa as it seeks the source of a salmonella outbreak, Cable News Network said, citing former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.

Health inspectors will stop shipments of cilantro, jalapeno peppers, Serrano peppers, scallions and bulb onions from entering the U.S. on July 7, Thompson told CNN. The items will be tested for salmonella and E.coli.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration originally theorized that tomatoes were the source of the salmonella poisoning, which has afflicted 943 people in 40 states, the District of Columbia and Canada, CNN said, citing U.S. Centers for Disease Control statistics.

The outbreak has cost tomato growers about $450 million, Thompson told CNN. He is a partner in Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, according to the law firm’s Web site.

I’m still trying to figure out why Tommy Thompson is involved. It may have to do with Akin Gump‘s large “Health Care” practice (if salmonella can be blamed on Mexican farmers, it gets the privatized health services folks off the hook, and the FDA out from under the suspicion of not doing their job) or their Republican Party ties (again, the FDA incompetence angle) or… who knows… something involving their big foreign clients, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, China.

It makes no sense that Thompson would be involved (even as an ex-Health and Human Services Department Secretary) … but, for what it’s worth, I’m still eating Mexican vegetables with no ill effects.