There has been a big increase in the number of people contracting foodborne illnesses in 2026 and many in Colorado are wondering whether it is safe to eat foods purchased at grocery stores or restaurants.

So far, 431 Coloradans have become sick after eating salmonella-tainted jalapeno peppers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for the Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, said Colorado trails only Minnesota in the total number of people getting sick from contaminated foods.

Image

"Colorado has been hit hard by the jalapeno peppers, either from restaurants or in salsas or in guacamole," Murray outlined. "But even as recently as last weekend, more products were getting added."

Colorado is also one of 47 states — along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico — to be affected by seven cyclospora outbreaks since May. The outbreaks have caused more than 17,000 laboratory-confirmed illnesses, more than 10 times the number of illnesses reported last year. Investigators are still reviewing nearly 12,000 additional cases.

Murray pointed out one common factor among the contaminated food items is they are meant to be eaten raw. Cooking food typically kills bacteria. Murray recommended one way to avoid illness is to only serve cooked foods to vulnerable people, including women who are pregnant, young children and older adults.

"What we're also hearing a lot about is people making the choice to go to a local farmers market for their produce. Where there is much more trust in the family farm that's been there for generations and not stuff that's being shipped thousands of miles," Murray observed.

According to a CBS News investigation, the farm shipping tainted iceberg lettuce had not been inspected in seven years. The previous inspection was in 2013, in response to a different cyclospora outbreak.

Murray added the Trump administration has significantly reduced the number of U.S. food safety workers, including at a lab responsible for responding to cyclospora outbreaks.

"We do think that this is a call for the federal government to allocate more resources to food safety, because we all have to eat. This is important to all of us," Murray underscored. "There's not enough money, there's not enough workers, there's not enough inspections and more needs to be done."