Monday's Internet Edition, September 06, 2010.
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| SAFE TO EAT- Homegrown tomatoes and those sold still attached to the vine are not affected by the salmonella outbreak. |
“Yes, I’ll have a BLT…”
“That will have to be a BL, OK?”
“OK.”
Diners at several Hamilton restaurants were surprised last Wednesday to discover their meals missing tomatoes. The restaurants voluntarily held the tomatoes after a report of a Salmonella outbreak linked to certain types of raw red tomatoes and products contain-ing them.
The Texas Department of State Health Services and local, federal and other state health authorities are investigating the multi-state outbreak of Saint-paul strain of Salmonella.
Officials last week were advising people not to eat raw plum, Roma or full-sized round tomatoes other than those sold attached to the vine or grown at home. Specific types and sources of the contaminated tomatoes remain under investi-gation.
On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration traceback review indicated that tomatoes from Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, North Caroli-na, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Belgium, Canada, Do-minican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, Netherlands and Puerto Rico are not associated with the outbreak and recommended that retailers, restaurateurs and food service operators offer only fresh and fresh cut red Roma, red plum and round red tomatoes and food products made from these sources for sale or service.
The FDA further recom-mended that restaurants, gro-cers and food service operators continue to offer cherry toma-toes, grape tomatoes and toma-toes with the vine still attached, from any source.
If you are unsure where your tomatoes came from, call the store where they were pur-chased for that information.
While no cases have been confirmed in Hamilton County, 56 cases have been confirmed in Texas and New Mexico since mid-April. Counties affected so far have been Cameron, Dallas, Fort Bend, Harris, Hays and Tarrant. No deaths have been reported from the outbreak, which has been linked to uncooked tomatoes in 16 states. By comparison, only three cases were confirmed during the same period of 2007.
“Just because it’s not in our county doesn’t mean we don’t need to be cautious,” said Dr. Randy Lee, Chief of Staff at Hamilton General Hospital. “Common sense practices like washing your hands with soap can prevent contamination.
“Most people with salmon-ella develop diarrhea, fever or cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection,” he said. “Infection is confirmed by culture of a stool sample. It usually lasts from four days to a week, and while most recover without treatment, severe infections can occur, especially in infants and young children, the elderly and frail or those whose immune systems are compromised. Basically, if you have recently eaten any-thing with raw tomatoes in it and experience any of these symptoms, come to the clinic and let us check you out.”
Of the 56 affected patients in Texas and New Mexico, 38 were interviewed, and most said they ate raw tomatoes from either stores or restaurants before becoming ill between April 23 and June 1.
As of Tuesday, the infection had affected 145 people in 16 states from Connecticut to California, according to the FDA. Twenty-three have been hospitalized, and there have been no confirmed deaths from the infection.
Salmonella is a bacterial infection that lives in the intestinal tracts of humans and other animals. The bacteria are usually transmitted to humans by eating foods contaminated with animal feces.
“Our supplier sent us a letter stating that our tomatoes come from Fort Worth out of Florida,” said Kim Howard, store manager at Lawrence Brothers grocery store. “We haven’t seen any recalls about them.”
“We haven’t had a recall on what we’re selling,” agreed the manager at David’s Super-market.
“From what I understand, cherry tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes or those that are sold still attached to the vine are OK to eat, according to the FDA,” said HGH dietitian Anita Butler. “To be completely safe, just don’t eat any tomatoes.
“Plus, any foods you get that are made with fresh tomatoes – fresh salsa, guacamole, pico – just be aware of the tomato content,” she said. “The produce salesman who serves the hospital said that every tomato he has is still on the truck. My advice is, just don’t take the chance.
“But if you do decide to eat tomatoes, make sure you wash them,” Butler said. “If they are bruised or damaged or appear to be spoiled, don’t eat them, although contaminated foods usually look and smell normal.
“Also, keep raw vegetables separate from raw meats,” she said, “don’t use the same cut-ting boards or knives for raw meat and vegetables, and wash your hands between handling of raw meat and vegetables.”
Fresh produce has always been vulnerable to bacterial contamination, in part because it's grown outside and may come into contact with animals in the field or contaminated fertilizer, or be tainted by unsanitary handling.
“We’re not putting toma-toes on anything,” said Mike Kolodzeij, manager of the local Storm’s restaurant. “(Owner) Robbis Storm called and said we’ll stop using tomatoes until the issue is figured out.
“We want to be on the safe side,” he said.
Another area Storms manager said his son had the infection last year and he “didn’t want to put anyone through that,” Kolodzeij said.
“At Sonic, taking care of our customers is our No. 1 priority,” said Christi Wood-worth of Sonic Industries. “We are committed to serving only safe, high quality products and providing the best customer service.
“Our Quality Assurance Team reviewed the advisory, conferred with other industry leaders and made the decision to remove tomatoes from all drive-ins as a precautionary measure until the source of the illnesses has been identified and eliminated,” she said in a media statement.
“There is no indication that the FDA has found salmonella in tomatoes used by Sonic or that anyone has become sick from tomatoes used in Sonic hamburgers, wraps or salads,” she continued. “We have no indication at this time that Sonic customers were ever exposed to any unsafe product.”
Every year, approximately 40,000 cases of salmonellosis are reported in the United States, according to the CDC. Because many milder cases are not diagnosed or reported, the actual number of infections may be 30 or more times greater. Salmonellosis is more common in the summer than winter.