Salmonella Scare Halts Tomato Sales
These tomatoes may be safe, but others may give you Salmonella poisoning. Beware.
Bountiful grape tomatoes still populate Mickey D's "premium salad," but you're out of luck if you want a tomato slice on your burger.
Reuters reported today that McDonald's and Wal-Mart stores have stopped selling certain tomatoes. Chipotle and Target are also nixing tomatoes to play it safe.
On Saturday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned U.S. consumers that the Salmonella outbreak—145 reported cases, including at least 23 hospitalizations since mid-April—is linked to raw red plum, red Roma, and red round tomatoes. The FDA says that it is safe to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with the vine still attached, and tomatoes grown at home. (Salmonella is no fun—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the illness usually entails 4 to 7 days of diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps.)
The FDA first alerted consumers about the risk on June 3. It has not yet identified the source of the contaminated tomatoes, but it recognizes that the source of the contaminated tomatoes may be limited to a single grower or packer or tomatoes from a specific geographic area—which one remains a mystery. Still, it's advising restaurants and grocery stores to pull tomatoes off their shelves.
Let's hope the FDA finds the culprit before the fast-encroaching tomato season. Tomato slices at McDonald's might taste like crunchy water, but a tomato-free summer would be a small tragedy.
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15 Comments:
We've beem tomato-less in Texas for over a week now and you guys are just now reporting on this? lol
Not like we're missing much though, because grocery store tomatoes are uh... not so good...
I wish I had a house and a garden...
ronzoni at 9:29PM on 06/09/08
ho hum
srhcb at 9:31PM on 06/09/08
My question is: are tomatoes ever good?
Answer: NO
Butrflygirly at 10:24PM on 06/09/08
This part made me ROFL:
"The FDA says that it is safe to eat [...] tomatoes grown at home."
No sh!t, sherlocks!!!!! I mean come on. I am really disappointed that they didn't mention that it would also be safe to eat tomatoes grown at small local farms. But no, to say that would be to tacitly admit that the problem lies with the mega-agriculture industry. To announce that smaller farms are still producing perfectly safe (not to mention more nutritious and more delicious) tomatoes would make the agri-business capitalists very very angry.
simon at 10:40PM on 06/09/08
I have what some may view as a stupid question, but I am going to ask anyway. Couldn't this be avoided by proper washing? I don't eat the wretched things, but to me-if you wash/clean something properly, all should be good. Right?
That said, there shouldn't be something on food we consume that could harm us...But that's a whole other issue/vicious circle.
Butrflygirly at 10:48PM on 06/09/08
Damn it. I'm not that fond of store-bought tomatoes, but it just depresses me when a food is basically unusable, like spinach was for a while (although I do love spinach).
The Gastronomic Gamer at 10:48PM on 06/09/08
@Butrflygirly - not necessarily. Last night on NPR they were talking to someone from (I believe) the CDC, and she said that the bacteria can actually enter through stem scar, so it may be inside the fruit.
LauraII at 9:20AM on 06/10/08
A coworker of mine went to Wendy's for dinner last night and her sammich was tomato-less. Of course, with this particular Wendy's it could have just been their classic inability to get anything right, but I'm assuming since McD's is doing without right now, the rest of fast-foodlandia might be as well.
elizabells at 9:22AM on 06/10/08
Just another reason to grow your own....you can even do it on a patio in a pot....or buy as local as possible!
We were at Denny's for nachos Sat. night (suprisingly Dennys has really good nachos!), and they didn't have their fresh tomato relish on top as usual....waitress said they aren't serving tomatoes there either.
mepolo at 10:04AM on 06/10/08
For the best up-to-date info on the tomato crisis:
http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/saintpaul/
famdoc at 11:29AM on 06/10/08
the FDA has a list of confirmed "safe" states and countries:
http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html
effingfoodie at 2:59PM on 06/10/08
Luckily those of us in Louisiana are lucky enough to have our state on the safe list just in time for the start of Creole Tomato season. And if anyone's around New Orleans this weekend, the Creole Tomato Festival and reopening of the French Market will be taking place downtown on Saturday and Sunday.
Oh and did I mention that also taking place within two blocks the above mentioned events are the Louisiana Seafood Festival and the Louisiana Cajun-Zydeco Festival?
There are 365 days in year. There are 414 festivals in a year in New Orleans. You do the math.
nowonmai11 at 3:52PM on 06/10/08
@nowonmai11 - Amen! There's nothing like a beautiful Creole tomato. Grew up eating them straight out of my Papere's garden in South La. I have one Creole tom growing in my backyard in Cali. It's a bit slow because the weather here sucks for growing Creoles. Still, I can't wait. Until they're ready, I'll be eating my homegrown pink brandywines. Not as great as a Creole, but it's better than Salmonella.
Have fun at the festival!
GumbeauxGal at 6:36PM on 06/10/08
simon can I give you an amen! I hear ya brother, here in Parker, Colorado, my garden is slowly producing organic, heirloom tomatoes, can't wait until august! So is anyone running for president worried about our food supply?
rockymountainmarta at 1:32PM on 06/11/08
My husband's restaurant trashed two cases of roma tomatoes and are only buying grape tomatoes for now.
I met a friend for lunch at a local mexican joint (inexpensive and has a patio) and the plates sure do look pallid without that ubiquitous tomato slice sitting on the shredded iceberg lettuce next to a liquidy pool of sour cream.
wookie at 2:11PM on 06/12/08