April-August. The spring and summer of 2008 were filled with fears over salmonella. In early June, both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration warned consumers about tainted tomatoes. A month later, concerns turned to raw jalapeno and serrano peppers from Mexico, in what was the largest outbreak of foodborne illness in a decade. By the end of August, the government announced the outbreak was finally over, although the exact source may never be known, partly because of shortcomings in the nation's food safety system. In the end, more than 1,400 hundred people in 43 states were sickened.