Two restaurants remove jalapeños potentially tied to salmonella outbreak

OTAY MESA, Calif. (NBC, KYMA) - Chipotle Mexican Grill and Qdoba said this week they had removed jalapeños from some of their restaurants after determining the peppers could be tied to a salmonella outbreak.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the jalepeños were distributed by a Southern California company.

The distributor at the center of the outbreak is Coast Citrus in Otay Mesa.

The County Health department said while there are no confirmed cases in San Diego, there's only one in California, and the outbreak has spread to 27 states.

The CDC made a case count map that shows the outbreak is most severe in Colorado and Minnesota.

Of the nearly 200 patients interviewed, most of them reported eating at Mexican-style restaurants before getting sick, including Chipotle and Qdoba.

When asked how often she eats at Chipotle, Carolina said, "Three times a week...I was a little scared, but I just kept eating there."

"If it's open, then I feel like I'll still eat there because if it's safe enough to be open, it's safe enough to eat...I guess," said Kyle.

In a statement, both Chipotle and Qdoba said once they found out about the outbreak, they removed the jalapeños from their restaurants.

Chipotle stopped using the jalapeños on July 20 and Qdoba on July 28.

"Are they no longer careful about other things? What else is getting through that we just haven't heard about yet?" said Mitch Groff, a California resident.

Groff is extra cautious because he knows what food poisoning feels like.

Those symptoms include diarrhea, stomach cramps and fever and start between 6 hours to 6 days after eating contaminated food.

"I don't tie it to a particular store like Qdoba or Chipotle…but to who their supplier is, where they're getting the stuff from. What are they doing to prevent this?" Groff asked.

Coast citrus distributors have not responded to our requests for comment. The FDA issued a recall on the peppers and is investigating if they may have gone to grocery stores as well.