Salmonella Tomato Outbreak Biggest Ever

WebMD Health News ^ | June 27, 2008 | Miranda Hitti

[AngieGal]

Source of Largest Salmonella Outbreak in U.S. History May Never Be Found, Says FDA

The salmonella outbreak in tomatoes isn't over and it's already the largest salmonella outbreak the CDC has ever tracked, in terms of lab-confirmed reported illness.

Since the outbreak began in April, the CDC has gotten reports of 810 people in 36 states and Washington, D.C., sickened by Salmonella saintpaul, the outbreak's rare strain of salmonella.

The most recent onset of illness was June 15, and that may not be the last case, since the CDC gets reports of illness about 16 days after an illness starts, says Patricia Griffin, MD, chief of the CDC's enteric diseases epidemiology branch.

Griffin notes that in 1985, a salmonella outbreak in milk sickened more than 16,000 people, but those cases weren't all confirmed by lab tests, unlike the number of cases in the current salmonella tomato outbreak.

Salmonella infection (salmonellosis) can cause diarrhea (which may be bloody), fever, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Symptoms typically start 12-72 hours after infection.

[saganite]

I’m guessing organically grown. Just my 2 cents.

[stravinskyrules]

MEXICANS; WE NEED MORE MEXICANS!

[Catmom]

Didn’t this all start cuz some farm workers were takin’ dumps in the tomato fields? ;(

[ConservativeMind]

Probiotics, especially Reuteri and Lactobacillus GG, can virtually mitigate all of this concern.

[NoLibZone]

And despite all the Food Safety measures growers and distributors must now employ, they claim to not know the source.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Translation: They know exactly where it came from and they aren’t going to say. Bad for free trade.

[mware]

I steaked out 20 beef steak tomato plants in my side yard.

I'll have to wait awhile but I'll eventually get my fill of them.

[SierraWasp]

If they can't nail down who cause 5 or 6 people to actually DIE from that 2001 anthrax episode, they're never gonna hunt down and identify the source of St. Paul's Salminella. I think it was more of an exercise in MSM/DBM slow news terrorism than anything else. First it was Alar...

What can one expect from GovernMental "hunters?"

[AD from SpringBay]

...they claim to not know the source.

The source of the tomatoes was Mexico, via NAFTA, through the lowered standards thruway. This is the United States of America and we should not be expected to live in turd-world conditions. They know exactly where the tomatoes came from. Reports to the contrary are bull-crap.

[NoLibZone]

I work in Ag and have for the last 32 years.

I have to be able to tell the FDA which Ranch,row and tree a carton of fruit came from.

Date it was picked, water composition, Pre and post harvest chems used, how it was stored.

[NoLibZone]

Bingo.

If I posted the video of raw sewage water Mexico uses to irrigate Table Grapes with I’d get sued.

[cherry]

is this actually IN the tomatoes?....or is it ON the tomatoes?.....nothing much is going make me stop eating tomatoes....not even the $3.98/lb price tag the other day...( I really needed them for a luncheon)

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Yep. This is being covered up in the interest of trade relations. So what if people are poisoned, some to death, because 50+ years of safety regulations have been tossed out because they're restrictive and racist. We save a few pennies per pound, and some SOB pickers have jobs, so what the hell.

[cherry]

back in my youth, we would go pick "drops" ...."drops" being the apples that fell off the tree and couldn't be sold to eat ...but they could be collected and if they weren't in too bad condition or mouse eaten, they could be used to make cider.......cider then was not pastuerized....the apples were briefly washed with water before they were smushed up....that was REAL cider....

that was the way a lot of us grew up....eating fruit and veggies right off the plant with no washing whatsoever....and we're still alive to tell about it...

[1rudeboy]

810 people in 36 states? That’s a mighty big dump someone took.

[1rudeboy]

Riddle me this, if the safety regs have been tossed, how did we find out about the salmonella?

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

They came from Yakima.

[CindyDawg]

We have been cutting back on eating out but my husband and braved the drive thru tonight. The girl asked him if he wanted to upgrade his sandwich. He asked what he got extra and was told tomatos “but we aren't putting tomatos on them anymore. Just lettuce.” He asked if he had to pay for the tomatos if he wasn't getting any tomatos. He got like a “well yeah” response. He really shouldn't have confused the girl but they shouldn't be charging for what they aren't selling either IMO.