Still No Source Identified in Salmonella Outbreak
By Michelle Fabio
As the number of reported illnesses from tomatoes contaminated with the Saintpaul strain of salmonella nears 400, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still has not been able to identify the source of the bacteria.
In the past couple weeks, the FDA has focused its investigation on parts of Florida and Mexico, but now the agency’s associate commissioner for foods isn’t even sure the source will ever be found.
“We may not ultimately know the farm where these came from,” Dr. David Acheson said. “Some trace-backs that we thought were looking pretty good have been falling apart.”
Other parts of Florida and Mexico have been excluded as possible sources for the poisoning.
You can find a complete list of safe tomato sources at the FDA’s website.
The tomatoes that have been linked to the salmonella outbreak are raw red plum, red Roma, round red tomatoes and products containing these raw tomatoes, which means that – are still safe to eat. Remember, though, that cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and tomatoes with the vine still attached are fine.
And so are your own homegrown tomatoes!
Thirty states and the District of Columbia have been affected by the outbreak of the rare Saintpaul strain of salmonella. In comparison, last year only 25 cases of salmonella related to this rare strain were reported in the US.
Although many major restaurant and supermarket chains had pulled tomatoes from their inventory, some, including McDonald’s, have already begun including them on menus and shelves again.
What about Tomato Casual readers? Are you avoiding raw tomatoes?
July 4th, 2008 at 7:56 am
I live in New Jersey and have been buying my tomatoes at the farmer’s market since this began. At first, they were hot house grown, but as of last week, field grown tomatoes were available. So I don’t have to worry about the salmonella problem - it hasn’t been linked to New Jersey, and I’m buying them from small farms.
My own tomatoes won’t be ready for a few weeks yet, but when they are I’ll be culling your recipes.
Thanks for your great site.
July 4th, 2008 at 8:38 am
I’ve been doing the same as Robin. I buy my tomatoes from the Farmer’s Market. I still occasionally buy cherry tomatoes from the supermarket. For some weird reason my farmer’s market doesn’t have any vendors with cherry tomatoes. I much prefer supporting the small local farms anyway and this is just another reason to do it.