Posted on 06/08/2008 3:49:11 AM PDT by Pharmboy
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has spread to 16 states, federal health officials said Saturday.
Investigations by the health departments of Texas and New Mexico and the federal Indian Health Service have tied 56 cases in Texas and 55 in New Mexico to raw, uncooked tomatoes.
“We’re seeing a steady increase,” said Deborah Busemeyer, the communications director for the New Mexico Department of Health.
An additional 50 people have been sickened by the same salmonella infection in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
Investigators are trying to determine if raw tomatoes are also responsible for the illnesses in those states, said Arleen Porcell, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C.
The source of the tomatoes responsible for the illnesses has not been determined.
At least 23 people have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported, Ms. Porcell said.
The rarity of the salmonella strain and the number of illnesses “suggest that implicated tomatoes are distributed throughout the country,” she said.
Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with the vine still attached and homegrown tomatoes are likely not the source of the outbreak, Ms. Busemeyer said.
Salmonella, snip...usually is transmitted to humans who eat food contaminated with animal feces.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I had raw tomatoes on my Taco Salad at Molina’s Mexican Restaurant last night! OH NO! So far I’m fine.
These farms are huge. So I clipped enough to fill the box with 2 foot stalks of asparagus. Went back to the office, And the manager said 5$ for the boxfull.
If you are near a farm and know what they are growing, talk to the manager if you can have a box of produce. Bring boot s.
We went to see the Mennonites Thursday. Returned home with bags of fresh gorgeous red tomatoes (they were so good!), zucchini that we grilled with olive oil and parmesean cheese, green tomatoes for frying, strawberries...
and 5 more tomato plants to add to the 10 I already have growing! LOL
Can’t beat it man!
A few months ago it was spinach from California...due to contamination from human waste. If you've ever seen the many acred fields of crops in Calif. and other states, operated by big ag, you can understand that field workers, even though there are porta-potties available, don't bother the walk all the way back to them - for reasons like: it's a long walk in the sweltering heat when you're bone tired; it's time out of picking time and they get paid by amount picked; they just don't give a sh*t...in their home country, human waste is used as fertilizer anyway.
The safest solution is to grow your own veggies and/or buy from small, local farms/farmers markets.
I've got patio tomatoes already setting on and have Beefsteaks, Beefmasters and Early girls that I'm transplanting today - some upside down in hanging baskets, other in half-barrel tubs.
I'm an great-granny so it is too much for me to maintain a ground level garden. The tubs are just the right height to work easily, plus, no need for rototilling come spring.
The upside down hanging plants - I'm doing tomatoes and cukes - are also at perfect height. I hang them out of the bottom of bucket-size tubs - the plants grow down with the fruit (tomatoes and cukes, by the way, are technically fruits, not vegetables) hangs down for easy picking and no rot from contact with the ground.)
Tomatoes are a super health-giving plant - however, the skin should not be eaten. When warmed, as it is when in the body, the skin is plastic-like and strong - and has a proclivity to plaster itself to the insides of your intestines, where it can remain for years while collecting debree underneath. Not a good scenario.
I dunk my tomatoes into boiling water for about 7-10 seconds and then plunge them into very cold water. The skin just slides off. My family loves the traditional Irish breakfast that includes Fried RED tomatoes. In that case, I don't preskin. I slice thick and fry in butter or half butter/oo. The heat from cooking renders the skin easily taken off. (A tiny dab of butter and a sprinkling of sugar - nummy..)
Thank you! My husband and I have been trying to remember the name of that amazing plant growth spray we had a couple years ago. It was Messenger.
How much epsom to how much water?
That would be Kingdom, Animalia. (grin)
I only buy tomatoes from Canada or the US. I avoid any that are labeled Mexico, for the reasons you state.
This is spreading across the country, Illinois is in post #29.
Thanks to Gabz for the alert.
Mmmm mmmm. Are ya making a remoulade sauce to put on top?
Last year my Portuguese Hots were 10" long!
Maglio said many in the tomato wholesale industry think the bad tomatoes came from Texas or Mexico.
Or tomatoes grown in Mexico, like the same outbreak that hit a few years ago in the Strawberry market.
Watch the government step in and raise the cost of tomato products by double as a result.
All we ever use on our garden is horse manure. A friend gives us all we need, mixed with straw. Have never sprayed the garden or used any fertilizers at all, just make sure we wash everything well.
Some Liberal Lemmings have resorted to washing all their produce several times before eating it. including each individual leaf of lettuce with a spray disinfectant bottle and rinsing several times.
OF course eating any “meat” is purely immoral, so they only eat rabbit food.
First off, nothing has been said that the culprit is whole tomatoes.
It has been assumed only by knee-jerker reactionists. It may be fresh tomato salsa, etc. that people no longer make themselves and buy it packaged in the produce section.
Many of these products are grown and packaged in Mexico these days.
I find it hard to believe that the list of whole tomato types listed in the article are said to be safe. All of which contact the ground regularly.
It may be contaminated by mechanized picking equipment that breaks the skin after the tomato is harvested. At which point, it stops producing acid and bacteria killing PH.
Here again is much knee-jerking before the actual source or the type is identified or defined.
Do you ever eat out?
Thanks granny. I hope it’s not somebody doing it on purpose.
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