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.... More

Ask Metafilter answers the question, "What is the relationship between the age of a consumed raw egg and the risk of food poisoning, and what factors influence it - in general, but also specifically to salmonella?"... More

I'm not usually all that skittish when it comes to food safety (I do stay away from frozen boxed hamburger on principle), but when I read in the New York Times about people very likely contracting salmonella from eating frozen food that hadn't been microwaved long enough, I got very scared. According to the story, a 19-month-old baby girl became "so violently ill after eating a Banquet chicken pot pie she passed out and had a seizure, a 104-degree fever, and nearly constant diarrhea" (she had diarrhea for six weeks before she fully recovered). She was not alone. "According to the Centers for Disease Control," the story continues, "165 people in 31 states have become ill with the same strain... More

eGullet's Steven Shaw has a strong op-ed in the New York Times today arguing for a more rational response to rats in restaurants than the current hysteria: Rats move freely from building to building: adult rats can, like the superhero Plastic Man, compress themselves to fit through spaces as narrow as half an inch. Their mobility makes them as easy to miss as they are to find. A rat-free city is no more possible than a germ-free or risk-free society. We can hope to manage rodents, roaches and other intruders down to an acceptable level, but they’ve always accompanied, and may outlast, human civilization.Rats in restaurants, while distasteful, are more a distraction than a disaster for public health. As... More