Indiana has recorded six cases of salmonella during a 27-state salmonella outbreak as of Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has traced the outbreak back to contaminated jalapeño peppers.
The contaminated jalapeños were from Sinaloa, Mexico. Coast Citrus Distributors delivered them to restaurants and other distributors. The peppers have since been recalled.
Nicole Stone is the epidemiology director for the Indiana Department of Health, or IDOH. She says since the recall, future exposures should be limited and hopefully non-existent.
"We may still identify a few more cases. But again, the hope would be that by removing the food product, you know, the most important step has been taken to prevent future illnesses," Stone said.
Stone suggests people seek a medical professional if they believe they have consumed the contaminated product. Symptoms of salmonella include diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps. Symptoms usually start six hours to six days after infection and last four to seven days.
In Stone's 10-year-long career with the IDOH, she described this outbreak as "decently large." IDOH is working with the CDC to monitor salmonella cases.
"We help by getting those cases investigated by the local health department, and then sharing that exposure information with the CDC and monitoring for clusters internally in Indiana and on our end as well," Stone said.
Stone said the team is busier than usual, as local health department staff are still responding to the recent cyclosporiasis outbreak.
"I don't think anything's been missed or, you know, anything like that for this response," Stone said. "I think it's just we know that there's been a lot of stress and extra work on our team internally, but especially on our local health department partners."
IDOH received the first report of salmonella during this outbreak on July 20, 2026.
Contact WFYI reporting intern Daniel Huber at dhuber@wfyi.org
