Salmonella Outbreak on Uncooked Tomatoes in Nine States

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Jeana (DP)

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ATLANTA — An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has now been reported in nine states, U.S health officials said Tuesday.

Lab tests have confirmed 40 illnesses in Texas and New Mexico as the same type of salmonella, right down to the genetic fingerprint. An investigation by Texas and New Mexico health authorities and the Indian Health Service tied those cases to uncooked, raw, large tomatoes.

At least 17 people in Texas and New Mexico have been hospitalized. None have died, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another 30 people have become sick with the same Salmonella Saintpaul infection in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Idaho, Illinois and Indiana. CDC investigators are looking into whether tomatoes were culprits there, too.

In Texas and New Mexico, raw large tomatoes — including Roma and red round tomatoes — were found to be a common factor in the 40 illnesses. But no farm, distributor or grocery chain has been identified as the main source, said Casey Barton Behravesh, a CDC epidemiologist working on the investigation.

more at:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,362544,00.html
 
I hate when I read this stuff. Last year I was freaked out over the peanut butter.:eek:
 
Please no.I love to slice tomatos in the summer as a side.
 
I wonder if it was the conditions the tomatoes were grown or processed in? We have a back yard garden and eat them right off the vine:eek:
 
I buy the little ones that are still on the vine!! Very yummy. I just bought some and they're just perfectly ripe and ready to eat. I'm gonna wait and see if they can come up with product names before I eat them, but I'll probably go ahead. The article mentioned "large" tomatoes and mine are very small.
 
I'm confused. Even if you wash off the tomato, you could get salmonella?!
 
Taximom said:
I'm confused. Even if you wash off the tomato, you could get salmonella?!
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I know that cooking them is a sure way to get rid of it, but I don't know if the tomato is infected, if washing can get rid of all of it.
 
Dang. I have a large one that I was going to eat tomorrow. I'm growing my own for this summer, but they aren't ready yet.
 
I don't get it - I thought salmonella was from stuff that wasn't cooked the whole way (like eggs) - you don't have to cook tomatoes, how can you get salmonella from it??

Over the summer a great appetizer for tomatoe lovers...
Slice tomatoes, arrange on a serving platter. Slice fresh mozarella and place on top of tomato slices. Add fresh basil and then drizzle some olive oil over the top. Yummm.
 
bakerprune64 said:
I wonder if it was the conditions the tomatoes were grown or processed in? We have a back yard garden and eat them right off the vine:eek:
Click to expand...
If you got the tomatoes off your vine you're safe.
The tomatoes from the 9 states are cause for concern. :mad:
 
Great, I'm in Texas and just ate roma tomatoes tonight. I wash vegetables in disinfectant soap before slicing, so I hope that helped. I don't see how salmonella could get inside the tomato unless it's during slicing.
 
Jeana (DP) said:
I buy the little ones that are still on the vine!! Very yummy. I just bought some and they're just perfectly ripe and ready to eat. I'm gonna wait and see if they can come up with product names before I eat them, but I'll probably go ahead. The article mentioned "large" tomatoes and mine are very small.
Click to expand...

I love those tomatoes! Dh and I love sliced tomato, cucumber and onion w/ zesty itallian dressing.
 
I think this is only from tomatoes that aren't washed well. It is in resteraunts where they likely do not wash the produce first or maybe not well enough. I would think you could wash any tomato well enough to not get this. Unlike the green onions they had trouble with before. The green onions have layers that are hard to get too. So you could not wash them well enough to get the bad stuff out.
 
The tomatoes may have the same problem as the spinach did. The salmonella is introduced through irrigation. It’s not on but in the tomatoes.

So the water the plants are irrigated with contains salmonella either from a cattle or hog operation or poor sanitary conditions around port-a-lets or what ever they provide for the workers to use. :sick:

http://www.foodqualitynews.com/news/ng.asp?id=77498-salmonella-e-coli-spinach

Jeri Barak, research microbiologist with the ARS, found that pathogens like salmonella use specific genes to colonze produce, creating an active interaction with the surface.

"When this happens, the bacteria become almost inseparable from the vegetable," she said.

In September 2006, three people died and more than 200 people fell ill after eating spinach contaminated with E.coli, which investigators traced to back Californian spinach irrigated with recycled water contaminated with feces.

That resulted in the FDA stating that washing spinach was an insufficient process of sanitation because the pathogen is systemic and absorbed through the roots.
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I would think plants that require a lot of water like lettuce, spinach and tomatoes would be very vulnerable.

Also:
http://www.foodqualitynews.com/news/ng.asp?n=77015-salmonella-spinach-pathogens

The increasing demand for fresher and natural food is driving consumers towards minimally processed fruits and vegetables. However, such products are common hosts to pathogens, including salmonella, l. monocytogenes and Escherichia coli O157:H7.

Recent outbreaks of pathogens in spinach and tomatoes, which led to some deaths and caused illness to hundreds of people across the US, has knocked public confidence in fresh food.

Scientists at the University of Sao Paulo collected salads from retailers in the city and found that minimally processed produce had poor microbiological quality.

A total of 181 samples of minimally processed leafy salads were taken and tested for coliforms, fecal coliforms, enterobacteriaceae, psychrotrophic microorganisms, and Salmonella in 133 samples.
Click to expand...
 
bakerprune64 said:
I wonder if it was the conditions the tomatoes were grown or processed in? We have a back yard garden and eat them right off the vine:eek:
Click to expand...

That's what we do but ours are not ready yet. If the problem is the water supply, you should be safe eating your own home grown vegetables as long as your water supply is clean.
 
Home grown tomatoes and tomatoes with vines still attached (sold in grocery stores) are safe.

The others might be...but might not, since they can't identify the source of the contaminated ones.

Salmonella can penetrate the vegetable's thin skin so only cooking the tomatoes keeps them safe.

Doggone it, I have to throw out about three pounds of tomatoes now...although I finished up a salad last night before I realized it...I had food poisoning a couple of weeks ago and it was the worst 24 hours of my life. Took me another full three days to recover being able to get up and about.
 
I'm thinking e.coli can be washed off, but apparently salmonella can't be. Thanks for all the (scary) info, guys.

Who needs to worry about terrorism when you can't even eat a salad without worrying?!
 
If you can't wash it off this really sucks. We eat tomatoes like others drink water. Picking them out at the produce section is an art and we eat them every day. I am going to hate to not have them.
 
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