Search for source of salmonella in tomatoes in high gear
Restaurants, stores and consumers adjust their routines as tomatoes disappear.
Tomatoes disappeared from cheeseburgers. Fresh salsa was suddenly in short supply. Supermarket produce sections were in disarray. Homemakers checked the fridge, and waiters were pressed to explain why certain menu items were simply unavailable.
Amid concerns over a widening salmonella outbreak, the nation's restaurants, supermarkets and consumers faced a bleak tomato landscape Monday.
Locally it all started over the weekend, when the federal government expanded earlier warnings to include 16 states, including California. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration urged consumers to avoid three varieties of tomatoes -- Roma, plum and red round -- and the nation's merchants responded in earnest.
By Monday morning the world's largest restaurateur, McDonald's Corp., joined thousands of other retailers by taking sliced tomatoes off all its sandwiches in its U.S. restaurants until health officials discover the source of the tainted fruit.
Many consumers were already on alert, inspecting their pantries and shopping with care. "I'm concerned, because I want to be able to trust my food sources," said artist Patrick Gerrity, 33, after shopping at a Vons grocery store near his Echo Park home. "It's strange that so much of our food seems to have problems now, since this didn't use to happen in the past."
Food safety officials scrambled to reassure consumers that most tomatoes were safe and that search efforts for the origin of the contaminated tomatoes had moved into high gear.
A rare strain of the microbe called salmonella saintpaul is suspected of causing 145 cases of illness since mid-April.
Two cases were reported in California, one in San Diego County and one in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In Irvine, the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, said that finding the source of the tainted tomatoes "could be a matter of a few days or even longer than that."
The FDA has ruled out tomatoes grown in a number of states, including California. But because tomatoes come from across the nation and Mexico, it can be difficult to determine their origin.
The outbreak comes from tomatoes that could have been grown in a variety of places, Von Eschenbach said as he toured the FDA laboratory where the investigation is underway. He said consumers should avoid eating the varieties of tomatoes in question but could eat cherry and grape tomatoes as well as fruit sold with the vine still attached and homegrown tomatoes.
