Consumer Affair
FDA: Tomatoes are now safe to eat
By Sue Mueller
Jul 19, 2008 - 9:32:16 AM

SATURDAY JULY 19, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Federal health regulators said on Thursday all types of fresh tomatoes are safe to eat, officially ending the 40-day-old warning that scared restaurants from serving and food consumers from eating tomatoes and resulted in a loss of tens of millions of dollars for the tomato industry.

The Food and Drug Administration explained why it lifted the warning cited in verbatim from the agency’s website:

Firms that had been producing tomatoes during the onset of the outbreak are no longer doing so, as part of their production cycle. It is very unlikely that any of the batches of tomatoes originally associated with the outbreak are still in the food-supply chain.

Health officials at the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not identified the real source of contamination that has caused the largest salmonella outbreak in a decade.

Both agencies now blame raw jalapeno peppers for some of the salmonella cases and have dispatched agents to a pepper packer in Mexico, according to Washington Post.

Early last week, they recommended that those at higher risk of the foodborne illness such young children and the elderly people and those whose immune systems have compromised should avoid eating jalapeno and serrano peppers.

The CDC updated the outbreak on its website on July 18 saying that as of July 17, a total of 1237people in the U.S. and Canada have fallen ill because of salmonella saintpaul, a bacterium strain that rarely causes any outbreak in the past.

It is official now that tomatoes on the market and in stores that the agencies early warned consumers not to eat including raw red Roma, red plum and round tomatoes without the vine attached from any grower are now free of the outbreak strain.

Below is the official public advisory for food consumers from the FDA.

FDA is updating its warning to consumers nationwide concerning the outbreak of Salmonella serotype Saintpaul. As of today, FDA officials believe that consumers may enjoy all types of fresh tomatoes available on the domestic market, without concern of becoming infected with Salmonella Saintpaul. The agency is removing the warning that has been in place since June 7, which states that consumers should avoid certain types of fresh tomatoes due to a potential connection to the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak

Consumers may resume enjoying any type of fresh tomato, including raw red plum, raw red Roma, and raw red round tomatoes.

While we are changing our consumer guidance about tomatoes, we reiterate our guidance to consumers that those in vulnerable populations (infants, the elderly, and immune-compromised people) should avoid eating jalapeño and serrano peppers as the investigation continues.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that many, but not all, of the people who have become ill during the outbreak also reported eating jalapeño or serrano peppers.

More than 1,700 samples of water, sild, tomatoes and others collected from packing sheds, warehouses and fields in Florida and Mexico have been tested, but investigators found no trace of the bacteria.

Still, FDA and CDC officials believe both tomatoes and jalapeno peppers can be the source of contamination. Some cases of illness were associated with tomatoes and others were linked with jalapeno peppers, which are imported mostly from Mexico, according to the agencies.

David Acheson, a FDA top food safety agent, was cited by Washington post as saying that it is possible that tomatoes tainted with salmonella contaminated jalapeno on the same farm or in the same packing shed or warehouse.   And investigators have indeed found points in the distribution chain where tomatoes and jalapenos were handled.

The industry complained that the government issued the warning without convincing evidence to link tomatoes to the outbreak.

"The pace of the trace-back process has been frustratingly slow, and as a result the entire industry has suffered significantly for an outbreak it did not cause," Reggie Brown, executive vice president with the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, was quoted by the Post as saying in a statement.

The FDA explained why it issued the warning cited in verbatim from its website:

The first case-control study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at the onset of this outbreak did indicate a strong association between the consumption of certain types of fresh tomatoes and illness caused by Salmonella Saintpaul.