Salmonella Outbreak Due To Tomatoes

[Miss Kitty]

This was big news around here last week, but I thought they had decided it was not the tomatoes.

 

[DD]

Beware e. coli too then.

 

[Beach Runner]

If we're going to eat raw fruits or vegetables that can be thoroughly rinsed (like tomatoes, bell peppers, but obviously not salad greens), I wash them in antibacterial soap and then rinse them thoroughly. You know that restaurants don't wash fruits and vegetables as well as we do at home -- too time-consuming (=too expensive due to labor costs).

 

[Rudyjohn]

This is sort of a post and run and may have already been mentioned earlier on this thread... but on our local Chicago news they said in regards to the salmonella outbreak, "be sure and wash your tomatoes well and you should be ok." Now of course, at restaurants, one never knows how well or if produce has even been washed.

But at home, it sounds as if it's safe to eat any and all tomatoes IF you wash them well (not just rinse).

Is this what others are hearing??

.

 

[wrobert]

This is sort of a post and run and may have already been mentioned earlier on this thread... but on our local Chicago news they said in regards to the salmonella outbreak, "be sure and wash your tomatoes well and you should be ok." Now of course, at restaurants, one never knows how well or if produce has even been washed.

But at home, it sounds as if it's safe to eat any and all tomatoes IF you wash them well (not just rinse).

Is this what others are hearing??

.

That is what I thought. But washing them tends to take away the added flavor you get from field picked vegetables.

 

[seagrovegirl]

Tomatos can carry bacteria in it's flesh. It absorbs a tremendous amount of water and depending on what you are fertilizing with, determines what is in the pulp. One rule of thumb...don't grow tomatos on top of your septic drainfield. Same with cucumbers. If it is not grown in your back yard or grown by a market you trust....don't eat watery veggies and fruit.

 

[beachmouse]

A good chunk of it is probably general liability instead of a lack of faith in food safety practices. It's probably cheaper for a restuarant to throw out all the tomatoes than to deal with a wrongful death lawsuit if someone with a weak or undeveloped immune system gets sick.

The Quizno's I went to today had also pulled all tomatoes from their stock.

 

[scooterbug44]

Ew! Forget tomatoes, I don't think you should be growing ANY food in your septic drain field!

 

[Beach Runner]

Tomatos can carry bacteria in it's flesh. It absorbs a tremendous amount of water and depending on what you are fertilizing with, determines what is in the pulp. One rule of thumb...don't grow tomatos on top of your septic drainfield. Same with cucumbers. If it is not grown in your back yard or grown by a market you trust....don't eat watery veggies and fruit.

So I guess that means that even if I wash my tomatoes in antibacterial soap, there can be bacteria below the surface that I can't get to. Peeling them should help, right (but not be bulletproof)?

 

[ASH]

McDonalds pulled sliced tomatoes from all of the US stores until this is resolved. Still serving the grape tomatoes in their salads as it is unrelated, but that ought to put some teeth into fixing things. They must go through a lot of tomatoes.