The Tomato Crisis Hits the NYC Metro Area

It seems that the FDA is playing catchup once again, as the salmonella outbreak from tomato consumption has spread to the New York City metro area. No one quite knows the source of the contamination, so prudence is a wise course of action.

In addition to New York, cases were also reported in Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee and Vermont.

There are 228 illnesses reported to the government across those states. Officials learned of five dozen previously unreported cases on Thursday, and they said it is possible the food poisoning contributed to a cancer patient's death.

The Food and Drug Administration has not pinpointed the source of the outbreak. With the latest known illness striking on June 1, officials also are not sure if all the tainted tomatoes are off the market.

"As long as we are continuing to see new cases come on board, it is a concern that there are still contaminated tomatoes out there," said Dr. David Acheson, the agency's food safety chief.

Government officials have said all week they were close to cracking the case, but ``maybe we were being too optimistic,'' Acheson acknowledged.

How much longer? ``That's impossible to say.''

On the do-not-eat list are raw red plum, red Roma or red round tomatoes, unless they were grown in specific states or countries that the FDA has cleared because they were not harvesting when the outbreak began or were not selling their tomatoes in places where people got sick.

People who have compromised immune systems are especially at risk as the illness can be fatal as one person has died and several dozen others have been hospitalized.

The FDA is trying to track down the source of the particular strain of salmonella, but has had little luck so far.

A problem for consumers is identifying where a tomato is from. It is a hurdle and criticism the FDA is grappling with as it tries to find the source of the rare strain of the bacterium salmonella St. Paul.
"There are plenty of tomatoes on the market that are safe," Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for foods, said in the conference call.
Consternation is mounting among tomato growers in Florida and Mexico, who are worried about lost sales. Both are large suppliers of tomatoes in the U.S.
While 19 Florida counties are safe to ship their tomatoes again, some top-producing counties, such as Collier and Dade, still are under investigation.

New Jersey tomatoes do not appear to be at risk at this time since they have yet to come to market.