Unless you just fell off a turnip truck, you know about the newest salmonella outbreak, a rare strain now found in fresh (uncut) tomatoes.
Quoting:
The Checkout
You Say Tomato, I Say Salmonella
Annys Shin
Hi. Your food safety nerd here checking in… I've been keeping an eye on this salmonella outbreak linked to tomatoes and after a few updates, it looks like it's finally hit the big time.
The Food and Drug Administration yesterday issued a broad warning, telling consumers not to eat raw Roma, red plum or red round tomatoes, or products that contain these types of raw red tomatoes unless the tomatoes are from the following places:
California, Georgia, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Belgium, Canada, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, Netherlands, and Puerto Rico
The FDA will continue to update this list of safe sources here.
Also safe are cherry, grape, and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached.
The tomato warning is a prime example of how complicated these outbreak investigations can be. The illnesses date back to mid-April! Since then, more than 145 people have become infected with an unusual strain known as Salmonella sereotype Saintpaul. (Is the person who first identified the bug from Minnesota or Catholic or both? Anyone?) States reporting illnesses linked to the outbreak include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
The outbreak comes a year after FDA launched its Tomato Safety Initiative, which was modeled after the Leafy Greens Safety Initiative that FDA started in the summer of 2006--right before the massive spinach outbreak.
Washington-area readers might find it interesting that FDA focused its Tomato Safety Initiative on the eastern shore of Virginia as well as Florida. Over the past 10 years, the FDA says, most tomato-associated outbreaks have been traced back to the eastern shore of VA.
We will keep you updated on this. In the meantime: look closely at where your tomatoes were grown and don't forget to apply the same scrutiny to products or dishes (if you're eating out) that contain raw tomato such as salads, salsa or bruschetta.
Safe eating everyone!
FDA Safe Sources list: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html#retailers
This was from: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thecheckout/2008/06/you_say_tomato_i_say_salmonell.html?nav=rss_blog