Salsa



In Spanish, Salsa can refer to any type of sauce, but in English it usually refers to the spicy, often tomato-based sauces typical of Latin American cuisine, particularly uncooked sauces or dips.

Salsa is the Spanish word for sauce, from Latin salsa of the same meaning, from sal, "salt"; "saline" and "salad" are related words. It is usually pronounced IPA; in Spanish it is pronounced ['salsa].

Health related issues

Care should be taken in the preparation and storage of salsa due to the fact that many raw-served varieties can serve as a good growth medium for potentially dangerous bacteria, especially when unrefrigerated. In 2002 a study appearing in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, conducted by the University of Texas-Houston Medical School, found that 66% of the sauces tested (71 samples tested, sauces being either: salsa, guacamole, or pico de gallo) from restaurants in Guadalajara, Jalisco, and 40% of those from Houston were contaminated with E. coli bacteria. The researchers found that the Mexican sauces from Guadalajara more frequently contained fecal contaminants and higher levels of the bacteria than those of the sauces from Houston, possibly as a result of more common improper refrigeration of the Mexican sauces.