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CDC uses shopper-card data to trace salmonella (AP)

In this photo taken March 9, 2010, Raymond Cirimele, 55, displays his Costco membership card outside his home in Chicago. Cirimele is one of at least 245 people in 44 states who have been sickened by a recent salmonella outbreak. Investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries and followed the trail of grocery purchases to a Rhode Island company that makes salami, then zeroed in on the pepper used to season the meat. He said no one asked for his shopper card data, but he would have provided it if someone had. 'I don't have any secrets, so I'm not worried about it,' he said. 'It's kind of like the whole airport security and all that. I'd rather fly on a safe plane.' (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)AP - As they scrambled recently to trace the source of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds around the country, investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention successfully used a new tool for the first time — the shopper cards that millions of Americans swipe every time they buy groceries.