The latest U.S. food scare: salmonella and tomatoes

[Jenise]

Anyone know what's the latest on this? I haven't kept up. Last I knew they'd zeroed in on Mexico and Florida, but that was several weeks ago and it covers a lot of territory. They haven't been able to eliminate one or the other since?

[Robin Garr]

Anyone know what's the latest on this? I haven't kept up. Last I knew they'd zeroed in on Mexico and Florida, but that was several weeks ago and it covers a lot of territory. They haven't been able to eliminate one or the other since?

According to the most recent serious story I can find (Saturday's Los Angeles Times), they still don't know for sure. Very frustrating! I figure in another week or two we'll have our own garden tomatoes ...
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/ ... 8069.story

Word around here is that it doesn't appear that it's even tomatoes. Cause unknown.

Stuart,

Latest word I've heard matches your news--it might not even be tomatoes.

So there's some salmonella threat out there involving mass-produced veggies. Just great.

But all the more reason to prefer local-grown.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

And now it might not even be tomatoes? Oh, that's tragic for the growers in Florida and Mexico who probably had to destroy megatons of unsellable crop. Yikes.

And now it might not even be tomatoes? Oh, that's tragic for the growers in Florida and Mexico who probably had to destroy megatons of unsellable crop. Yikes.

This was the subject of a front page article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, that the growers are not happy campers. The thing that caught my eye was the strange geographic distribution of cases is one thought, as we were told that it might be either Mexican or Floridian tomatoes. Among the states according to the chart, as of June 26, Texas had 342 cases, New Mexico 85, Illinois 78 and Arizona somewhere between 26 and 75 cases. Otherwise, all states below 25 cases and Florida in the category of between 1-4 cases. Makes me wonder how Florida tomatoes could have been suspect unless none of them are actually consumed in Florida, which I suppose is possible if they're all exported, not being the sort of fruit that would be of interest in farmer's markets.

The article goes on to point out that tomatoes in particular are hard to trace because tomatoes from many sources get mixed in the facilities that sort and pack them. Also that tomatoes from, say, Florida might get shipped first to Mexico (!) before being shipped back to the US.

Bottom line, they don't have a clue. Maybe, the article says, it's another ingredient that goes in things like salsa and guacamole, which many victims apparently ate.