In a Thursday statement, the Rhode Island Department of Health said that the salmonella outbreak, which began in July and made at least 189 people sick in as many as
40 states of the country, is possibly linked to the use of ground black pepper by a Burrillville cured-meat maker, Daniele Inc.

While a testing of the pepper samples taken from the plant have revealed contamination with the same salmonella strain that is linked with the nation-wide outbreak, the Rhode Island health department’s spokeswoman Annemarie Beardsworth said that the officials would still test closed containers of pepper to rule out the possibility of contamination at the plant alone.

Beardsworth said: “We're pretty sure right now that the ground pepper is the source of the outbreak, but until we get a positive result that was taken from a closed container, we can't be 100% certain.”

Meanwhile, Daniele issued a voluntary recall of 1.2 million pounds of pepper-coated salami on Friday. Moreover, the pepper being sold in the stores and used by consumers steers clear of implication in the salmonella outbreak.

Noting that Daniele had purchased its pepper in 50-pound boxes from a New York City distributor, which had bought it from an importer, Ernest M. Julian, the Office of Food Protection head, said that the US Food and Drug Administration is probing about other companies that purchased pepper from the same importer.