Salmonella Risk Doubles with Use of Imported Spices

Most of the spices consumed in America come from foreign sources, in fact, much of our food does. But spices are twice as likely to bear contamination than other types of imported foods due to a number of factors. Spices tend to come from smaller farms and therefore a much greater variety of sources. Additionally, once harvested, spices can then take a number of varied routes in transit and spend time in a number of storage facilities. In fact, due to their longer shelf-life, spices may spend more time in storage, be more likely to move from one storage facility to another before finding their way to their final destination. Many factors are at play and therefore make it harder to pinpoint the source of contamination and thereby correct it. While cooking often mitigates the threat of health risk the FDA is implementing a multi-tiered strategy to reduce illness due to salmonella contamination. Read this article in Yahoo News to find out more about the danger of salmonella contamination in spices, what is being done, and precautions you can make as a consumer.