Central Market putting Carolina serrano peppers in stores

Central Market says it's putting serrano peppers from North Carolinia in its stores, after a salmonella strain was reported a week ago in a batch of Mexican serranos.

"Serrano peppers from non-implicated areas will be returned to Central Market shelves," Central Market said i a release. "We are securing Serrano peppers from North Carolina."

The salmonella strain linked to a nationwide outbreak has been found in irrigation water and in a sample from a batch of peppers at a Mexican farm, federal health officials said July 30, according to The Associated Press.

The farm is in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Previously, the FDA had traced a contaminated jalapeņo pepper to a farm in Tamaulipas. Both farms shipped through a packing facility in Nuevo Leon, raising the possibility that contamination could have occurred there.

The FDA advised consumers to avoid raw serrano peppers and raw jalapeņo peppers from Mexico and any foods that contain them.