Imagine 15,000 small family farmers providing each a sack of peppercorns. Not very sanitary conditions. One fella in the village collects all the sacks. Then it goes on, and so on. 6-10 weeks to make it here. If i did the same it would be rhubarb, lol...grows like a weed, and anything in the onion/allium family. It would leave my farm clean and organic, outhouse is down hill (and down wind) Once it leaves me, who knows. I witnessed some fellas topple a stack of cabbages off a truck in Chinatown. All over the street and muddy gutter, scramble and gather and back into the crates. Penzeys recall a few years ago was found by a random dept of ag test. Bugs and their body parts, dirts and nature are no big deal and allowed by the FDA, in a reasonable amount. Its just protein. Better testing methods, and quick, can trace the source much faster and contain the issue. Lots of articles the past 10 yrs about better testing and sourcing and teaching sanitary practices from the get-go, the farmers. But they realize so much happens on the boat to here. A recent article ... Here is a link that might be useful: why pepper is dirty

Wow..this really contains alot of products! Thanks for the link.

First of all the overly wet cheese you experienced a couple of months back was in no way related the present findings. Secondly the surface mold on your present wheel has nothing at all to do with lysteria. That is caused by air getting to the surface of the cheese. Blue mold grows when exposed to air, which is why holes are punched in the cheese after it is formed into wheels, to allow air to get in so the mold can grow. Either the person who hand wrapped the cheese wasn't careful enough, or when you re wrapped the cheese you didn't take enough care to make sure the foil was firmly in contact with the cheese. The reason they found lysteria in the cheese is because one of the farmers whose cows supplied the milk for the cheese was not keeping a close enough eye on his cow to notice when one was sick. Lysteria can cause still birth or abortion in a cow and since milk production depends on healthy cows having calves, no farmer wants lysteria anywhere near his dairy herd. I am told that the milk comes from dairy farmers within this county....so we don't deal with big tankers of milk from California. Lysteria in aged cheeses has been a subject of controversy for many many years. Cany lysteria bacteria present in cheeses aged 60 days or longer at a temperature above 35 degrees is rendered in active or killed during that time....but it seems that if it was ever present it is still detectable. This has been an ongoing war with makers of fine cheeses and the FDA. Imported Romano was recently recalled and Blue Bell had a huge recall of their ice cream a little while ago> I get more than a little irritated by government agencies that are sending alarms about cheese when no illnesses have been reported and that same government allowing the presence of hormones in our fluid milk and meat> I wish I could get my hands on some of that recalled cheese....I'll bet it's cheap....and just as good as any ever made!

I just got this information from an email from my vet. Please pass this along to all pet owners.