Salmonella Found in Basil Grown in Mexico, FDA Says

July 11 (Bloomberg) -- A strain of salmonella, the bacteria that has sickened more than 1,000 Americans who ate tainted produce since April, has been found in Thai basil grown in Mexico.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration identified salmonella during random testing of basil imported by Lucky Green Trading Inc., a family-run company based in Garden Grove, California, the agency said today in a statement on its Web site. The product has been recalled from Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, where it was distributed directly and sold at retail stores.

FDA officials have boosted inspections of Mexican exports as they look for the origin of the salmonella Saintpaul outbreak that has spread to 42 states since mid-April. While the focus has been on certain types of tomatoes grown in Mexico and Florida, officials said this week that jalapenos caused some illnesses and that Serrano peppers and cilantro also are under investigation. The basil was found to have a different strain of salmonella than the salmonella Saintpaul traced to the current outbreak, said FDA spokesman Michael Herndon.

``Every importer from Mexico has to go through the inspection,'' said Tony Ton, whose family runs Lucky Green, in a phone interview today. ``That's a new thing. Every year, we used to have one or two occasions where FDA has to do a random inspection.''

No illnesses have been linked to Lucky Green's herbs. Their Thai basil comes from the town of Santa Rosa Tapachula in Nayarit, a state on the central-west coast of Mexico. The company doesn't sell any other products this time of the year, Ton said.

Three shipments of Thai basil from the same Mexican grower passed inspection last week, so Lucky Green is looking to see whether the latest batch may have been contaminated by another grower in the same area, Ton said.