“This is the smoking gun,” John Kobayashi, a Washington State epidemiologist, told the Associated Press on June 28, 1999.

   Health officials had detected Salmonella muenchen in fresh, unpasteurized orange juice made by Sun Orchard Inc. of Tempe, Arizona.

   The juice was also sold under the brand names Aloha, Earls & Joey Tomato’s, Markon, Sysco, Trader Joe’s, Viola, and Zupan. All told, more than 200 people in 15 states and two Canadian provinces got sick.

   In other outbreaks, unpasteurized apple cider may have become contaminated with E. coli from manure that touched the apples when they fell to the ground. But it’s not clear how Salmonella got into Sun Orchard’s orange juice.

   “The company may have mixed juice from its California plant with unpasteurized orange juice that came from Mexico in tanker trucks,” says the CDC’s Tauxe.

   Asked if he’s surprised to find Salmonella in an acidic beverage like OJ, the FDA’s Potter says no. “Food-borne pathogens don’t read textbooks. They show up and survive where they’re not supposed to as a matter of routine these days.”
 

 Buy pasteurized juice and cider, especially if you’re serving it to the elderly, children, or people with weak immune systems. (Frozen juice concentrates and unrefrigerated juices are always pasteurized. With refrigerated juices, check the label.)

 If you buy unpasteurized cider, heat it to 160°F (or boil it if you don’t have a thermometer). You can serve it warm or cold.