Posted on 06/10/2008 2:47:28 PM PDT by kellynla
MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida's tomato industry is in "complete collapse" and growers in California and Mexico are having trouble selling their crops as U.S. regulators hunt the source of a salmonella outbreak linked to certain tomato varieties, growers said on Tuesday.
In Florida, the No. 1 U.S. tomato producer, $40 million worth of tomatoes will rot unless the U.S. Food and Drug Administration quickly traces the source of the outbreak and clears the state's produce, an industry official said.
"We've had to stop packing, stop picking," said Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange.
"The stuff that should have been harvested over the weekend won't survive more than another day or so. The stuff we have in storage is getting riper every minute and at some point it will have to be disposed of," Brown said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
“Anyway - at the end of a very lengthy and scary article it says something like “Properly cooked pork is safe. It is the handling of the product that is dangerous. Always wash your hands, utensils and any surfaces that come into contact with the meat.” Well - duuhhh!?”
Well you would think it would be “duuhhh”, but I was was dumbfounded at the number of people who fell for that nonsense about the “possibility” of plants sucking up samonella and being “contaminated” from the inside. It was even posted here on FR and I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the number of people who fell for it. Just goes to show you how many are totally ignorant of what should be basic knowledge of the “necessities” of life. :(
Because people are afraid of irradiation.
There is no telling. Nowadays there are the organic growers who are jumping through hoops to improve production and yeild and are, IMO, using some pretty iffy methods.
Then, of course, lettuce is also hand-picked and packed, so the human contact comes into play.
I also heard that the tomatoes that they are saying are safe are now going to Mexico to be packed because they don’t have enough workers in the US. I don’t know that that is absolutely true though.
Indeed, that would be a marked change from the usual state of tomatoes offered for sale.
E-coli would indicate fecal contamination. The contaminant in this case is salmonella. The would indicate unsanitary processing probably spread by improper facilities sterilization.
Garden ping list may like this.
thanks, bfl
>>”question:
can the roots of tomato plants take in salmonella and distribute it to the plant making it part of the fruit?’
>short and polite answer: no
accurate answer: yes
Evidence of association of salmonellae with tomato plants grown hydroponically in inoculated nutrient solution
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=13761039
no offense, but did you actually read and understand your link?
And at the end of 9 days what happened to the tomato plant?
My point exactly. :)
Here is the *pertinent* information from the article:
“Additional studies need to be done to unequivocally demonstrate that salmonellae can exist as endophytes in tomato plants *grown under conditions that simulate commonly used agronomic practices*.”
*short* answer is still “no”, but this is one of the reasons I rarely bother posting to FR anymore.
The article is not conclusive, the salmonella made it into the leaves, but they don't know if it could make it into the tomato itself.
Of possible interest to the Garden List!!!!!!!!
Fox News just reported that the Florida tomato crop has been cleared for consumption.
That is very good news. I have a major picnic coming up for the Fourth (son’s rehearsal dinner) and I can’t imagine gourmet burgers without tomatos.
Y’all, I live in Indonesia. We always wash any vegetable or fruit in a bleach bath. Use one capful of bleach to a sinkful of water, place in the food and wait 20 minutes.
We have never had a problem with salmonella, giardia or amoeba from food washed in this method. I’ve been doing it for well over 13 years.
I don’t understand that. I guess if it has the word “radiation” in it they think it will turn them into giant spiders or something. Of course, salmonella will turn you inside out....
susie
The practical, public health, answer is still yes, it can.
Even if they survive only a short time, at least some salmonella bacteria can make it to the interior of the plant in viable condition.
It is also considered good practice in a scientific paper to point out potential weaknesses of the study. The authors acknowledge that their results are not “unequivocal” in terms of long term survival of the salmonella species they worked with.
I wondered if it could be caused by using chicken feces to fertilize? Not sure if it’s in their droppings or not. I’m yaking about something I know almost nothing about, but why not?! ;)
susie
Wow, THAT’S interesting.
susie
That’s okay, probably tomatoes cause global warming, or hostile work environments, or somethin’. And besides that, these rotten tomatoes can be used to make ethanol, and as everyone around here seems to know, that will cause the price of corn to PLUMMET! /sarc
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