So how much damage can a few rotten tomatoes really do? The tomato-linked salmonella outbreak announced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 3 has claimed 228 victims in 23 states over 58 days (and counting). It has put 25 people in the hospital and may have had a role in hastening the death of a cancer patient. And then there’s the flurry of panic as many of the tomatoes that American consumers take for granted every day suddenly disappear — from McDonald’s hamburgers; from the salsa at Chipotle Mexican Grill; from Burger King, Taco Bell and Sonic; and from the grocery shelves at Kroger, Wal-Mart and Target. Didn’t we just go through this with bagged spinach? With peanut butter? With pet food?
Because the FDA’s tomato-recall recommendation is so specific — including only three types, grown in certain regions during a certain time — and because many national chains pulled their tomato stock within days of the announcement, most of the infected samples have likely been removed. But the outbreak remains ongoing; its source has not yet been determined, and the government is investigating new cases every day. It may be a few more weeks before the delicious staple fruit is given the all-clear.
Taking tomatoes off shelves and menus may contain the outbreak, but it doesn’t explain it. On May 22, the New Mexico Health Department notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that it knew of seven people recently infected with Salmonella Saintpaul, an unusual strand of the bacteria that accounted for only 400 of the 1.4 million cases of salmonella infection reported last year. And it was precisely because occurrences of the Saintpaul strand are so rare that the report caught the CDC’s attention. When Texas and a few other states reported cases of people being infected by bacteria with the same “genetic fingerprint,” a multistate search for Salmonella Saintpaul was launched. While the CDC tracked reported illnesses, the FDA interviewed victims to find out what they had eaten (and where). The common answer was tomatoes.
There have been 13 outbreaks of salmonella in tomatoes since 1990, which puts the fruit on the list of high-risk foods that are prone to infection. But unlike the bagged spinach from the 2006 E. Coli scare, the tomatoes don’t come with a traceable bar code. “When you’re dealing with tomatoes, it is much, much more complex,” explains Dr. David Acheson, the FDA’s associate commissioner for foods. The FDA’s great tomato hunt has an ever-expanding list of suspects. A salmonella victim can point to the supermarket (or restaurant) that sold the offending fruit, but that store probably sources its tomatoes from several suppliers, each of which uses several distributors — and distributors buy from any number of growers.
“Each set of questions just multiplies into a fan of information that has to be sorted through to understand where the links cross over,” says Acheson. Although the FDA has managed to rule out some regions — northern Florida is safe because its tomatoes weren’t ready for harvest at the time of the outbreak — it will be some time until the true source is found. “We’re not quite there yet,” says Acheson, “but we’re getting very close.” But Dr. Ian Williams, chief of the CDC’s OutbreakNet team, warns that the source may never be found due to the fruit’s short shelf life. “You don’t expect to find an infected tomato sitting on someone’s counter 10 days after the outbreak,” says Williams.
Still, the lag time between the initial outbreak and the government’s reaction is startling: the first Salmonella Saintpaul victim fell ill on April 16, but the FDA didn’t announce the tomato link until June 3. Williams says part of the problem identifying salmonella outbreaks is that a lot of victims don’t see the symptoms — diarrhea, fever, vomiting — as sufficiently severe to warrant a visit to the doctor, and so they go undiagnosed. “There may be a delay in reporting outbreaks because people do not have a stool specimen tested,” he says. Officials have not yet identified an infected tomato, and because of the fruit’s short shelf life, they probably never will.
The FDA unveiled a tomato-safety initiative in 2007 that sought to identify causes of salmonella infection, but Acheson admits that studying preventive techniques doesn’t help the FDA deal with outbreaks. The FDA has no plans to change the initiative in the face of the recent outbreak.
Even if the FDA can pinpoint the source of the outbreak, it’s hard for consumers to know where their tomatoes are grown. Certain imported foods are required to carry country-of-origin labels, but that doesn’t apply to domestic produce. “I’m not aware of any tomato outbreak that was not domestic,” says Acheson. There is no such thing as a mandatory state-of-origin label for food, and federal authorities have yet to create such a law. “Saying ‘product of the U.S.’ isn’t necessarily going to confer safety,” he says. So much for reassurance.
Vi ste jeben.
Amen Brother. Nicely put. Good looking site too.
I’m game. I’ll have the link up tonight. I look forward to talking to you in the forum along with all the other tomatoes.
Thanks Joe, we put alot of effort in to the design and organization. Now I’ve got to focus on some quality content.
I appreciate you joining in. I thinkwe can all help each other out. Just the blogroll links alone will probably jump us a PR rank on the next update if we can get enough participation.
Thanks Jennifer, I appreciate you adding me to your roll.
I like you table in http://www.centraldenverblog.com/2007/06/15/from-the-lawn-chair-june-17th-30th-free-denver-area-events/.
Hmm, why won’t the paste of your last post link up?
Did you use the new plugin on WP? I tried it in my absorption rate table but was a little disappointed in the result. I just need to learn html and css.
Thanks for joining in.
You have a great site!
Let me (no, let Sean) know how to add you to ours- his email is stark@optionsrealty.com- we’d love to reciprocate with such a great website-blogsite-site!
Thanks for the comment and compliment Laurie. You’ve done well on http://www.optionsrealty.com/ also. I really like your logo, color schemes and overall layout. It’s very easy to read and navigate. The feel makes it inviting. I’ll send Sean the blogroll name, but simply SaltLakeSpeaks.
If you’d like your text changed on my blogroll, let me know.
Thanks for participating.
Great Idea…I’ll be working on that blogroll…
Great idea Keith!
And regarding the Tomato Forum, yes that would be a good idea. I’ll have Jason put it on his list and perhaps have it tied to the password protected wiki.
Thanks Jim,
I’m hoping the forum will be a source to share new developments at Tomato blogs. For example, the new table plug-in we played this week. Others may be interested in it as well.
And some of the things you’ve put on other Tomato Blogs may interest me as well. It’s leveraging off your ever increaseing development experience.
Again, thanks for agreeing to the forum.
Great to have you on-board Jackie? You’ll add a-lot of Sizzle to the group. lol.
Everytime I go to your site http://www.realestatesizzle.com/ I have this jingle go through my head “Where in the world is Jackie Colson-Miller?” Very catchy.
Keith…WOW…It’s WORKING! I hope you’re all voting for Jim and I in that crazy Project Blogger contest on Active Rain!!
I have to admit I’ve not been following project blogger. But, I’ll head over right now and vote.
Keith,
Will be rolling out the “roll” on the www.stlouisrealestatevoice.com
Great idea and you have done a Awesome job on your Blog design.
Keith- All of the links are now on my site thank goodness. I’ve worked up a sweat. I can’t wait until we start getting reports of leads that come as a result of our tomato bloggers from across the country. The sites have been impressive.
My table that you referred to was built in Google Docs and then pasted into Blogjet. It has worked very well for me. I’d love to see your absorption table.
Thanks Jim, for being willing to put us all together. Kind of scary, isn’t it?
Great idea. I’m in.
Don’t have time to implement it right now, but I will get it done.
Keith: Very good idea and easy to implement with a blog article. I’ll just copy and paste–and have some fun.
Your idea of a private forum is a good one.
Keith,
I linked everyone to my blogroll and I need some help.
Do you have a list of the Tomato Bloggers email addresses. I’m stuck in the Google “sandbox” and Molly thinks backlinks from the vine would help. Thanks.
Thanks for joining Doug. Sorry I don’t have emails.
I just added each person to my blogroll and launched the post. It’s been interesting to watch those who’ve joined, and those who’ve visited the post and not commented or joined.
I’m also working down the list doing some social commenting. There are really some great blogs in the group.
I’d suggest you just add all on the list to your blogroll then go through your blogroll clicking through to each blog and get to know them. Most will appreciate the visit, comments, and reciprocate.
I’m also trying to get out out of the sandbox. Remember, it is a marathon.
Congrats on getting them all loaded Jennifer. I can’t believe how my backlinks skyrocketed after getting them loaded and having just a couple reciprocate. It is worth the hour or so it took to load them.
I had a little trouble with google docs. The html it adds seems to conflict with the default html code and css code on my blog. But think I’m going back to it. The WP plug-in doesn’t allow you to modify the text and add links to the text within the table.
The best solution would be if I just learned html and css.
Great to have you onboard Marty. The prize does not always go to the most swift, but to the most persistent.
Nice touch Roberta. done with the usual class of the Luxury Digest http://www.luxuryhomedigest.com/2007/06/17/hot-tomatoes-and-cool-bloggers/.
But, I’m not certain there is a concern with well manicured blogrolls as Chris shares his insight with us. http://realestatetomato.typepad.com/the_real_estate_tomato/2007/06/white_hat_seo_f.html#comment-73059086.
It will be interesting to see the varied results for those in the patch.
Keith,
behind you 100%. I feel like I’m spending so much time blogging and posting in forums…what harm can one more do, right? Actually, there is kind of a built in trust I feel with all of Jim’s clients that I’ve talked with so far. I guess it’s that “we’re all in the same boat” mentality, but I think a kind of blogging support group and place to bounce ideas off of would be nice and we can all trust each other not to judge and make fun, because we’re all new here and learning, right? Sign www.MyMcClellanville.net up!
You’ve got me and all of McClellanville (that’s nearly 500 people
great idea! I’m working on it and figuring out how to do this right…. as “Arnold” says…. “I’ll be back….”
A “blogging support group”! That’s exactly what I need:) You really have me confused with all the html and css talk, but I WILL learn. I think I’ll just sign up for extra blogging classes, throw in some html, a little css and hire someone to handle all my real estate transactions for a while. Or….. maybe, I could hire a blogger! Mmmmm! Who knew we would all become Bloggers when we got our RE license?
I’m in!
Thanks for jumping in Dan. Wow, you do a blog for a market of 500. That shows passion.
We’ll look for your return Sondra. I’ll be curious to see what you figure out.
Paula, the market certainly has had it’s tirns for me over the last 20 years. At least you’re on the leading edge of the curve. Just don’t fall off.
The down side of hiring a blogger is YOU don’t build that relationship that brings referrals.
Keith - Leading edge - I like that! I’ll stay the course, no falling here, well, maybe just a stumble.
Just kidding about hiring a blogger!
Keith: Thanks! I am adding the extra fruit to the blog list on Luxury Home Digest.
Great effort on the part of all!