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DEL.ICIO.USTomatoes are back. Are you biting?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tomatoes are back in many grocery stores and restaurants, often with signs saying that they’re from safe growing areas.
Many states and countries have been cleared, including Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and North Florida, which supply many of the tomatoes in supermarkets around Atlanta this time of year. I’ve bought big slicing tomatoes and served them over the past week or so. And I’ve missed the cut-up tomatoes on the salad bar at work, which is now stocked with grape tomatoes.
Still, it requires confidence in every step of the food chain to buy and eat a product that has been linked to a Salmonella outbreak that has sickened 552 people, nine of them in metro Atlanta, even when you’re assured it’s from a safe area. With supermarkets and restaurants on notice about what growing regions have been cleared — about four dozen at last count and listed on the FDA web site — many tomato lovers are paying attention to where the vegetable is grown before buying.
Demand is starting to pick back up in regions like North Florida, but probably won’t be back to normal levels until federal authorities decide the outbreak has ended, says Mike Stuart, president of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association. That may come too late for his growers, who will probably wrap up their season after the first week of July. He hasn’t totaled the losses yet, but they’re expected to be extensive, affecting not just farmers, but packing houses, those who transport tomatoes, farm workers and others. Georgia farmers are also seeing more of a demand after an initial slump in orders, according to Charles Hall of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.
The produce industry wants things to get back to normal. Stuart says he was encouraged to see the big quick-service restaurants come back to tomatoes quickly — McDonald’s, Burger King and Yum Brand nameplates like Taco Bell are serving them again. He’s hoping consumers take a cue from that and feel comfortable ordering and eating tomatoes again.
But as the number of cases keeps rising, that may not happen so easily. Federal investigators are tracing the path of tomatoes between a cluster of illnesses in Chicago and farms in Mexico and Florida, starting this weekend. They’ll be looking at distribution centers, packing sheds and farms, searching for signs of what might have caused the illnesses. It’s conceivable that the source of contamination could still be out there, says David Acheson, the FDA’s association commissioner for food.
So is it safe to eat tomatoes? Cherry and grape tomatoes, and those sold on the vine, have not been implicated in the outbreak and are OK to eat from any growing region, the FDA says. And round red tomatoes, Roma and plum tomatoes from cleared regions are also OK, according to the FDA. (You can read more advice about choosing tomatoes and handling them properly on web sites from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA.)
Federal authorities consider the outbreak to be ongoing. Cases have turned up as recently as June 10, several days after a nationwide warning against eating round red tomatoes, Roma and plum tomatoes from suspect growing regions. There’s about a two-week lag in matching illnesses to the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul. The CDC has heard of illnesses that started after June 10, but are still waiting on lab matches to see if they’re part of this outbreak.
Tomatoes are especially difficult to trace, because when they’re picked and packed, they’re frequently mingled with produce from other farms, to match sizes and stages of ripeness in boxes. They may go through many hands before reaching a home or restaurant kitchen. Investigators have to trace every step of that journey in looking for possible contamination.
Did you stop buying tomatoes after the FDA warning? Have you started ordering them again at restaurants, or using them at home? If you are buying them, do you look to see where they were grown?
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By HS Teacher
June 20, 2008 10:51 PM | Link to this
I continue to buy tomatoes for home use to supplement what is in my small garden. I ate at Panara Bread @ Lenox Mall today and was glad to see my sandwich had a slice of tomato on it.
By FCM
June 21, 2008 8:15 AM | Link to this
I like tomatoes on the vine and the big beefsteak style ones. I do not like the grape and other small ones much…So yes, I did stop buying the beefsteak ones (and tossed 2 out after I had stomach issues after eating a 3rd one I had bought—just incase they were related). However, I did buy (and eat without issue) some tomatoes in the last week. Many of my favorite restaurants stopped serving salsa, and then went to using canned tomatoes, UGH! I hope they can go back to fresh soon, it makes such a difference.
By Harold
June 21, 2008 9:15 AM | Link to this
I buy mostly grape tomatoes as I use them on salads. I don’t think that they were effected by the the ban. I do enjoy nice locally grown ripe tomatoes byt it’s early in the season. Looking foward to seeing them in the next few weeks.
By ron
June 21, 2008 4:04 PM | Link to this
No to tomatoes.Why take the chance?There are plenty of other foods to eat.I’ll wait ‘til next year.
By Brittanicus
June 21, 2008 5:54 PM | Link to this
Before NAFTA, CAFTA and the rest of poorly negotiated free trade treaties, I do not ever remember the ominous issues we now have with imported goods? Yes! Perhaps, we are today getting cheaper goods, but most are shoddily manufactured. Our nation has been inundated with toxic drugs, lead-laced toys and fruit and vegetables of unknown origin with toxic repercussions. Tomatoes have become the latest disaster that has spread quickly throughout the states. It seems strange that the source of the contamination has zeroed in on Florida and Mexico. Yet the safety net supposedly in place, has failed to determine the origin. The source would have been immediately pin-pointed if our politicians had not been corrupted by the special interest lobby. American should demand that every item, no matter what it is must show country of origin. Pharmaceutical giants have found it enormously profitable to produce their products overseas. We have unknowingly committed economic suicide, because everything we use everyday made or grown somewhere else. Our industrial base has been whittled down and even some of our national security has been outsourced. Most clothing labels indicate its made in another land, and we we have stupidly walked into a carefully engineered trap that the globalist agenda has implemented. Our businesses have attracted cheap illegal labor, while many of the corporate cartels have outsourced jobs to third world countries, They in turn send us goods that should be manufactured in America. The American worker both skilled and low skilled have become pawns in this vicious circle, where the only winners are the wealthy elite. America the greatest nation in the world, must now borrow it’s own money from Communist China, while foreign governments and commercial enterprises try to buy or lease our infrastructure.
By Vegetable of the day illness
June 22, 2008 12:10 AM | Link to this
Why aren’t you asking if we are buying spinach or strawberries? The fact is that any food could become contaminated with improper processing. Just because tomatoes were the food of the month does not mean that they are not safe now or that they will not become suspect again.
By C. Henry
June 22, 2008 7:13 PM | Link to this
Regarding tomatoes, yes- we are buying them and continuing to eat them at my home. Of course, they must be “Georgia Grown” and I’m definitely looking for the stem to be attached. Recently, my company was building a health related web site for Senior Citizens called http://www.youtharian.com ; I became more aware of health foods as a result - although I’m not a Senior. So, I’m definitely not going to give up on a good green or red “ripe” tomatoe.
By JG
June 23, 2008 1:43 PM | Link to this
Bless and eat!
By Trill
June 23, 2008 5:02 PM | Link to this
I am not a huge fan of tomatoes anyway, so I have decided not to risk getting salmonella at all by simply not eating them. If I am going to sick from food, I at least want it to be from a food I really like!
By James
June 24, 2008 12:24 AM | Link to this
I love tomatoes and I’ve been eating more that my fair share lately. I haven’t had any problems - I think you have to have a weak immune system to be affected.
By Denise
June 26, 2008 11:59 PM | Link to this
I live in Georgia-Georgia grown tomatoes are NOT on the list. Yes, I have continued to eat tomatoes. My family of 4 is on its 2nd 25pd box of Georgia tomatoes and we haven’t had any sickness at all. Wash the tomatoes before you eat them as an extra precaution-I do this with any produce that my family eats anyway. We have slowly seen our local businesses begin to serve tomatoes again and are very thankful.
I live in an agricultural community and it has been heartbreaking to see all the workers (including the seasonal workers) who depend on this crop to sustain their family. What heartbreak and frustration our farmers must feel to have a beautiful crop that they have to let them rot in the field because they can’t be sold. If they can’t sell them they can’t afford to pay the workers to come pick them. This affects our seasonal workers as well as our farmer. You have the seasonal workers who travel to our state just for the tomato picking season to sustain their family financially. They are here with 2 options #1- sit by and watch the tomatoes rot in the field because the farmer can’t afford to pay them or #2 they work hard in the hot sun all day picking tomatoes that never leave the farms. We need to find a way to help our GEORGIA farmers. They are being punished for something our state has been cleared of.
It may take a few minutes to ask where the tomatoes you are wanting to buy came from BUT what a difference that few minutes could make to the livelihood of so many of our fellow GEORGIA neighbors rather than just swearing off tomatoes all together.
By Kahne
June 29, 2008 10:15 PM | Link to this
In situations like this I always fall back on “follow the money” for an explanation. Who would be the most likely beneficiary of US mainland grown tomatoes dying on the vine for lack of a market? I think a resonable person can draw a conclusion.
By Veggie Hobbyist
June 30, 2008 8:11 AM | Link to this
Yes. After the peanut butter scare, then the lettuce scare, etc., etc., we started growing our own tomatoes. We use only containers on a deck. One tomato plant can provide ample tomatoes for two! Saves $$ and risk of contamination!