FDA's outbreak page carries two verdicts at once. The Salmonella Javiana investigation is marked Ongoing — investigators are still working with Coast Citrus Distributors and every downstream recipient to map where the recalled Sinaloa jalapeños traveled. [1] The restaurant chapter is marked closed: Chipotle switched suppliers July 20, QDOBA stopped serving the peppers July 28, and regulators consider neither chain a current risk. [1]

The recall's own timeline shows how the case widened. Coast Citrus initiated a limited recall of bulk-packaged jalapeños on July 22, then agreed on August 5 to recall all remaining implicated peppers imported from Sinaloa, Mexico. [2] The page's revision history tells the same story: updates landed August 5, 10, 13, 14, 19, and 21, each adding another branch to the recall tree. [1] The illness ledger behind it stands at 431 cases across 32 states, 57 hospitalizations, no deaths, and a last onset of August 2 — which means more confirmations will surface as reporting catches up, even with the fields cleared. [1][3]

What the page still does not contain is what this paper flagged yesterday: the name of the farm where the strain began. Traceback has delivered a region and a distributor; the grower remains anonymous three weeks into a 32-state outbreak. [1] Until that box fills, Ongoing is doing a lot of work.

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago