On Thursday it was reported that 73 people in 18 states were affected by the outbreak strain of Salmonella after consuming cucumbers imported from Mexico over the past several months.

On April 24th the Food and Drug Administration named Daniel Cardenas Izabal and Miracle Greenhouse of Culiacán, Mexico as the link to the cucumber salmonella outbreak and has blocked further shipments unless they test clean according to Produce News.

According to Marler Blog 27 percent of the people who consumed the cumbers were hospitalized but no deaths have been reported.

The FDA said it traced shipping records from six of the ill persons who consumed cucumbers to the distributor, Rio Rico, AZ-based Tricar Sales Inc., and to the Mexican suppliers.

The FDA has released a statement concerning the Import Alert they have placed on the distributor, "The Import Alert informs FDA field personnel that FDA has sufficient evidence or other information to detain future shipments of cucumbers from these suppliers."

The statement went on to say "Cucumbers from these two firms will remain on Import Alert until FDA has sufficient confidence that future shipments will be in compliance."

The Huffington Post reported that although salmonella is mostly associated with chicken, eggs and ground meat, produce has been tied to numerous outbreaks of the disease over the past few years.

Fruits and vegetables that are eaten raw such as cucumbers tend to pose an especially high risk since the salmonella bacteria are killed by high heat.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that 67 percent of the ill persons have said that the cucumbers they ate were either purchased or consumed at several locations or restaurants.

The CDC has now announced that following the salmonella outbreak, "The investigation continues, in order to determine whether there are other possible sources of the outbreak."