Dried paprika salmonella contamination in Virginia has a specific cause

Dried paprika is at risk for salmonella contamination.Photo byWiley 45 Flickr

Paprika contamination has a reason

Newsweek reported that Nuts.com has recalled bags of powdered paprika in Massachusetts and Virginia due to concern over salmonella contamination. The FDA has listed this as a Class 1, the highest level of poisoning.

Class I recalls are given in "a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death."

According to Johns Hopkins, salmonella infections happen when people eat food where animal or human feces contamination occurs. This may lead some to wonder how salmonella ended up in a spice.

The reason is that dried paprika does not undergo a process where heat can kill bacteria, which is why this spice is susceptible to salmonella.