It’s okay to eat any type of raw tomato again. After months of concern that tomatoes were linked to the salmonella outbreak, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lifts its alert because the farms that may have shipped tomatoes at the beginning of the outbreak are no longer harvesting them.
But the outbreak is not over – people are still getting sick. 1,220 people in 42 states have gotten sick so far. About 18 percent have been hospitalized.
So, what’s causing the outbreak? There’s no definite answer on that yet. But now food safety officials say there could have been cross-contamination between tomatoes and peppers at packing or washing stations before the foods got to restaurants and grocery stores.
The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are still looking into raw jalape̱o and raw serrano peppers as possible culprits. They are warning people at high risk Рlike the elderly, infants, and those with weak immune systems Рto avoid eating raw jalape̱o and raw serrano peppers.
Anyone else concerned that it’s taking so long to find out what’s causing the outbreak? What a big mess!
Peppers now…geesh!
I am not so sure I believe them and I will continue to wait for my own tomotoes in my garden to ripen before purchasing any. Hmm … I think I need to plant some peppers now.
Are we getting these outbreaks because of poor conditions & handling, or because of poor immune systems? & do we have poor immune systems because we don’t get the nutrition needed from our food?
This is the type of news that makes me want to dig up my entire yard and plant a huge garden. I have a small herb garden and several veggies growing in containers already, but I’m seriously thinking about going bigger next year.
It really points out how vulnerable our food system is within the U.S. The checks and controls that have been in place for decades are no longer sufficient to ensure, to a reasonable degree, a safe food supply. Coupled with fewer inspectors than ever before, it is a wonder there are not more outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, really.
This demonstrates how easy it would be for an insidious attack to occur through the points where food products enters our country. If nothing else, the Department of Homeland Security should put more attention to these vulnerabilities instead of spending such huge amounts of their budget on blanket surveillance that infringes upon basic privacy expectations and has been shown to do very, very little with regard to catching terrorists.
I’m so glad I have both tomatoes and peppers in my garden…I don’t think I could get by for more than a few days without fresh salsa! BTW, I also read where cilantro (gotta have it for salsa!) is also a suspect with regard to being a possible salmonella, as well as e-coli, carrier.
Rebecca