Latest FDA Post-Investigation Summary for Mango Salmonella Outbreak Redacts Key Details
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published an Executive Incident Summary Abstract (EIS) for a recently closed Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak linked to mangoes. The outbreak resulted in 56 cases of illness reported in a redacted number of states.
Key details about the outbreak that were redacted from the EIS summary include the importer of the implicated mangoes or any firms involved in the outbreak, the country in which the mangoes were grown, and the number and names of states in which outbreak cases were reported.
Outbreak and Investigation Timeline
On November 20, 2025, FDA’s Office of Coordinated Outbreak Response, Evaluation, and Emergency Preparedness (CORE) was notified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of a S. enterica serovar Saintpaul cluster. Local and state health departments began interviewing ill people, which led to the identification of mangoes as a suspected vehicle by the end of December.
FDA CORE initiated traceback on mango exposures of six cases from (redacted) points of service, including (redacted) traceback legs, with separate supply chains, the details of which were also redacted.
Solved and Unsolved Details
The traceback identified a common mango importer. The importer and the country from which the mangoes originated have been redacted, despite “strong epidemiological association and traceback convergence” confirming these sources.
The outbreak investigation was closed with some uncertainties. Identification of the exact source was not possible due to the absence of brand information or detailed product information on shopper records, cases refusing or unable to share shopper records, incomplete grower records from the importer of record, comingling of product lots in shipments, and lack of lot code traceability both within production facilities and from distribution centers to retail locations.
Increased Screening Implemented for Implicated Mangoes
For-cause inspections were not conducted during the investigation. However, increased screening was implemented for (redacted) suppliers of mango to a redacted firm. Samples were not collected due to the timing of identification of the firms and the end of the harvest season in the redacted country of origin.
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Calls for FDA to Stop Redacting Details About Foodborne Illness Outbreaks
In March 2026, FDA released another heavily redacted EIS related to a fatal listeriosis outbreak involving an imported produce item that occurred in 2024–2025. Redacted key details from this EIS included demographics about the patients and the states in which they resided, the suspected vehicle of illness, the region from which the implicated product was imported, and the names of any firms involved in the outbreak.
FDA began posting EISs in September 2025 as a show of “radical transparency,” but heavily redacts them “in accordance with federal disclosure laws and FDA regulations to protect confidential and personally identifiable information.”
In February 2026, Stop Foodborne Illness submitted a petition to FDA urging the agency to adopt a policy of publicly disclosing the names of all companies associated with foodborne illness outbreaks, regardless of whether there is a related recall, arguing that the legal basis on which FDA protects company information is inconsistent.
