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Advice from the experts
The FDA is advising consumers in New Mexico and Texas to limit their tomato consumption to cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with the vine still attached and tomatoes grown at home.
The Arizona Department of Health Services advises the same caution for infants, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.
Consumers should be aware that raw tomatoes are often used in the preparation of fresh salsa, guacamole, pico de gallo and other food products.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises everyone to:
• Refrigerate tomatoes within 2 hours or discard cut, peeled or cooked tomatoes.
• Avoid purchasing bruised or damaged tomatoes and discard any that appear spoiled.
• Thoroughly wash all tomatoes under running water.
• Keep tomatoes that will be consumed raw separate from raw meats, raw seafood and raw produce items.
• Wash cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and countertops with hot water and soap when switching between types of food products.
Sources: FDA, CDC and the Arizona Department of Health Services
Salmonella Symptoms
Most people infected with salmonella develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts four to seven days, and most people recover without treatment. Some may need hospitalization due to severe diarrhea. The elderly, infants, and those with impaired immune systems are more likely to have a severe illness. For more information, visit www.cdc.gov/salmonella/ saintpaul/
Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Tucson Region

Stores pull some tomatoes after salmonella news

By Tom Beal
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.05.2008
Some stores pulled large tomatoes from their shelves this week as health officials warned of a possible link between tomatoes and an outbreak of salmonella infections, initially concentrated in New Mexico and Texas.
So far, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed that Salmonella Saintpaul has sickened at least 86 people in 11 states, including 17 who were hospitalized. Arizona has recorded six cases, including one in Pima County. No one has died.
The number is certainly larger. It does not include people who suffered through a bout of diarrhea without a doctor visit, nor seven additional cases confirmed in New Mexico, health officials there said.
The CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and several state health departments have tentatively linked the salmonella outbreak to consumption of large raw tomatoes of the red round and Roma, or plum, varieties.
Small cherry or grape tomatoes and tomatoes with the vine still on are not affected by the warning.
Health officials recommend that infants, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems not eat the implicated varieties of tomatoes as a precaution and avoid restaurant meals and salsas with raw tomatoes in them.
If you do eat red round (slicing) or plum tomatoes, health officials say, you should be careful about washing, preparing and storing them after they are cut.
A spokesman for Bashas' said the company initially pulled tomatoes from all of its Bashas', Food City and AJ's supermarkets Tuesday. "We wanted to err on the side of caution," said Kristy Nied, director of communications.
"Earlier this morning, we put back the vine tomatoes and the other tomatoes the CDC is saying are OK."
The chain then restocked red round and Roma tomatoes but put up signs with the CDC's recommendations for washing and preparing them. Bashas' is not using those varieties in its prepared foods, said Nied.
Whole Foods pulled the suspected varieties from its markets and also from food it prepares. It placed signs in its stores to alert shoppers to the possible tomato-salmonella connection, spokeswoman Kate Lowery wrote in an e-mail statement.
"Since officials do not yet know the source, it is impossible to know what growers are affected at this time so we are taking extra precautions until we know more," Lowery wrote.
Michael Murphy, spokesman for the Arizona Department of Health Services, said he fielded a lot of inquiries from markets and restaurants this week. The state is urging stores, restaurants and customers to wash all tomatoes thoroughly, wash the surfaces on which they are prepared and refrigerate tomatoes within two hours after cutting.
Epidemiologists have not pinpointed the cause of the outbreak. The warning was issued after interviews with 38 infected people in Texas and New Mexico identified the tomatoes as a potential link.
In many of New Mexico's cases, those interviewed said they had used tomatoes to make uncooked salsa, said Deborah Busemeyer, spokeswoman for the New Mexico Department of Health.
New Mexico at first issued a warning about tomatoes bought in four particular stores but is now using the more general recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control.
"The New Mexico stores implicated in the outbreak told us that their tomatoes came from Mexico," Busemeyer wrote in an e-mail following up on a phone interview Wednesday. "I need to emphasize," she wrote, "that this is preliminary information and our investigation into the source of the tomatoes continues."
The FDA, which is responsible for food safety, issued a release saying it "recognizes that the source of the contaminated tomatoes may be limited to a single grower or packer or tomatoes from a specific geographic area."
It said it is working with the CDC to solve the puzzle quickly.
"FDA also recognizes that there are many tomato crops across the country and in foreign countries that are just becoming ready for harvest or will become ready in the coming months."
● Contact reporter Tom Beal at 573-4158 or tbeal@azstarnet.com.
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