Well, we now know the Spanish cucumbers weren't at fault, it was German bean sprouts...

The bottom line is, we've been experiencing a lot of salmonella outbreaks here in the US in the past few years. Let's see, according to the CDC, we've had:

5 major salmonella outbreaks:
• A recall of 50,000 pounds of ground turkey occurred earlier this year.
• Chicken and feed contamination resulted in the recall of 500 million eggs in 2010.
• Processing plant contamination resulted in a variety of foods, including peanut butter crackers, sickening people in 46 states in 2009.
• Poor kitchen practices caused foods to become under-cooked and cross-contaminated at restaurants and grocery stores in 2008.
• Trucks hauling raw eggs, then ice cream, caused 200,000 to become ill nationwide in 1994.
-- Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention


Which is why I share this link from the CDC:

Food Safety