"We hope the rest of the produce industry will not be painted with this broad brush," United Fresh Produce Assn. spokeswoman Amy Philpott said. "We've lost a lot of money, but we have done it in the interest of public health."
Far from being ruled out as the source of the salmonella, tomatoes that could be carrying the bacteria might still be entering the market because of large growing areas, long harvesting periods or unsanitary warehouse conditions, Acheson said.
Last week, health agencies said they tracked some of the implicated tomatoes to farms in Florida and Mexico, but officials stressed that contamination could have happened in transit or at a packing station.
The FDA has cleared 41 U.S. states, including California; several Mexican states; and parts of Florida
"The longer this goes on, the less likely it's all originating from a single farm source," Acheson said.
"It's possible this investigation will not produce a smoking gun," Acheson said. "We need to look at all possibilities. We need to reexamine all the information."
Food safety experts said the agencies were doing the best they could with limited staff and budgets and, to stay on the safe side, were not ruling out other produce.
"There are going to be a lot of theories, but I would hesitate to try to second-guess the investigators," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director at the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest. "The people in the field probably know a lot more than they're telling us, but they need a very high level of certainty."
The FDA said its consumer advisory remained the same -- that Roma, plum and red round tomatoes from cleared states and grape, cherry and vine tomatoes from all areas were safe to eat.
Yasmin Tarver, 34, a social worker from Los Angeles, said she did not blame health agencies for the long investigation.
As she emerged from a downtown El Pollo Loco with bagged chicken and avocado salsa on the side, she said she's stopped eating fresh tomatoes and only uses ketchup from bottles she owned before the outbreak began.
"I have no control over needing to go to the grocery store to buy food, but until I can grow my own -- which I don't see happening -- I guess I'll just have to be extra mindful," Tarver said.
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tiffany.hsu@latimes.com
