Sales of the peppers have dropped significantly since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a recent advisory warning people not to eat them. The advisory was in response to a wave of salmonella cases across the country that has sickened more than 1,200 people in 43 states since April.

Twenty-three people have been reported sick with the strain in North Carolina since the outbreak began, most recently in late June, said Bill Furney, spokesman for the state Division of Public Health.

Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler called the FDA advisory a "blanket statement" that needed to be refined. North Carolina jalapeno peppers are completely safe, he said, and the FDA's actions are hurting local growers.

"This defies common sense to me," Troxler said during a news conference at the State Farmers Market. "What they should be using is a scalpel, and instead they are using a knife."

North Carolina grows about 1,000 acres of chili peppers and ranks eighth nationally in production. But supermarkets are not buying the jalapenos, and the shipments are being sent back to farms, where they most likely go to waste.

Randy Bailey of Bailey's Farm in Oxford spoke of major losses for jalapeno growers since the FDA advisory was made public.

"There was $30,000 lost in sales yesterday," Bailey said. "It'll cost us $200,000 a week if this goes on."

Troxler said the department was planning to recommend a number of short-term actions for the FDA in Washington, including in-depth labeling information on agricultural products. He stressed the importance of traceability for produce, so that outbreaks can be quickly tracked to the source.

"Local products probably are going to be the freshest and safest anywhere," Troxler said. He said consumers should look for the label in supermarkets that reads "Got to be N.C." or buy from local farmers markets.