5,500 pounds of Mexican basil recalled in U.S.

BEIJING, Dec. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Some 5,500 pounds of Mexican basil has been recalled in the United States because it may be infected with salmonella, a spokesman for the importer said Thursday.
The basil was imported from a farm in Mexico's southern Baja California region on Dec. 5 and sold to food distributors in Southern California, Texas and Illinois the following day, said Alberto Martinez, a spokesman for Los Angeles-based importer Top Line Specialty Produce.
The Southern California distributor sold the basil to restaurants and other food service customers, but it was unknown whether the other distributors sold to food service customers or retailers, he said. No illnesses have been reported.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors detected the possible contamination during a random check as the basil passed over the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego County, Martinez said.
Top Line continued to import basil and other herbs from the Green Paradise farm in the Los Cabos area, where the potentially contaminated product was grown, processed and bagged, until the FDA alerted the company about its inspection results on Tuesday, he said.
The company immediately stopped imports from that farm and issued its recall on Wednesday, Martinez said.
FDA spokeswoman Cathy McDermott said Top Line did not learn about the potential contamination until two weeks after the samples were taken because it took that long for the specimens to be analyzed and for the results to be reported.