Tomato Salmonella Spreads To 17 States

McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Burger King Among Big Companies Yanking Raw Tomatoes

(CBS/ AP)  Federal officials hunted for the source of a 17-state salmonella outbreak linked to three types of raw tomatoes, while the list of supermarkets and restaurants yanking those varieties from shelves and menus grew.

McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Burger King, Kroger, Outback Steakhouse, Winn-Dixie and Taco Bell were among the companies that voluntarily withdrew red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes unless they were grown in certain states and countries.

In addition, officials at the Los Angeles Unified School District - the nation's second largest - said Monday they have "indefinitely suspended" serving uncooked tomatoes.

The FDA is investigating the source of the outbreak, agency spokeswoman Kimberly Rawlings said. "We are working hard and fast on this one and hope to have something as quickly as possible," Rawlings said Monday.

Jaydee Hanson of the Center for Food Safety criticized the FDA's response to the outbreak. Hanson told CBS' The Early Show that the reason the search for the source has taken so long is that the FDA conducts fewer safety inspections.

The lack of oversight makes it "much more likely your food will be infected with something," Hanson said.

Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with the vine still attached and homegrown tomatoes are likely not the source of the outbreak, federal officials said.

Also not associated with the outbreak are raw red Roma, red plum and round red tomatoes from Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Belgium, Canada, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, Netherlands and Puerto Rico.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that since mid-April, 167 people infected with salmonella with the same "genetic fingerprint" have been identified. At least 23 people have been hospitalized.

A 67-year-old cancer patient in Texas who health officials said was sickened by salmonella at a Mexican restaurant is believed to be the first death associated with the outbreak.

The death of Raul Rivera last week has been officially attributed to his cancer, but Houston health department spokeswoman Kathy Barton told the Houston Chronicle in Tuesday's editions that the salmonella strain was a contributing factor.

Rivera's wife said he was hospitalized after eating pico de gallo, a tomato-based condiment, in late May while celebrating good news about his cancer treatment.

Salmonella is a bacteria that lives in the intestinal tracts of humans and other animals. The bacteria are usually transmitted to humans by eating foods contaminated with animal feces.

Most infected people suffer fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps starting 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness tends to last four to seven days.

The Food and Drug Administration warned consumers in New Mexico and Texas as early as June 3 about the outbreak. The agency expanded its warning during the weekend and chains began voluntarily removing many red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes from their shelves in response.

The salmonella causing the outbreak is a very unusual type called salmonella saintpaul, said FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach, who added it was not more virulent than other types of salmonella.

McDonald's, the world's largest hamburger chain, stopped serving sliced tomatoes on its sandwiches as a precaution, but will continue serving grape tomatoes in its salads because no problems have been linked to that variety.

The decision didn't upset Connie Semaitis, a 49-year-old travel agent in downtown Chicago, who bought a cheeseburger and a drink at a McDonald's during lunch hour Monday.

"I'd rather be safe than sorry," Semaitis said.

Tampa-based OSI Restaurant Partners LLC, which owns and operates eight brands including Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba's and Bonefish Grill, said it stopped serving all raw tomatoes other than grape tomatoes on Saturday evening. The company also instructed restaurants to discard salsa and other prepared foods containing raw tomatoes.

Burger King Corp. said it had withdrawn raw round red tomatoes from most of its U.S. restaurants, as well as locations in Canada and Puerto Rico and some other Caribbean islands. Some California restaurants continued using the tomatoes because they buy from growers in states the FDA has said are not involved in the outbreak, Burger King said.

Other restaurant operators that stopped serving most tomatoes: Yum Brands Inc., which owns Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver's and A&W All-American Food Restaurants; Darden Restaurants, which owns and operates six brands including Red Lobster and Olive Garden; Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.; and Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp., which operates Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes restaurants in 15 states.

Among retailers, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. - the largest grocery seller in the U.S. - is working with federal officials to ensure affected tomatoes are pulled from Wal-Marts, Neighborhood Markets and Sam's Club warehouse stores nationwide, spokeswoman Deisha Galberth said.

Galberth said the company is modifying orders to its stores and putting an electronic block at its registers as an added safety measure to keep the recalled tomatoes from being purchased.

Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., the nation's largest traditional grocery chain, said it pulled the three types of tomatoes from all its stores in 31 states on Sunday per the FDA advisory. The company had early last week pulled the tomatoes from stores in Texas and New Mexico.

Winn-Dixie Stores Inc., which operates 521 stores in five southern states, also stopped selling tomatoes involved in the FDA warning, as did Publix Super Markets Inc. Publix offered refunds to customers who bought the tomatoes before they were removed from shelves.

Trader Joe's, with more than 280 grocery stores in 23 states, also stopped selling the tomatoes in question and offered refunds, according to a statement from spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki.

Giant Eagle, which has 223 supermarkets in western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Maryland, said it also removed the tomatoes from store shelves; as did SuperValu Inc., which operates Jewel, Shaw's, Cub Foods, Acme and some Albertson's stores.

[rushlimpdrug]

Well this has been very informative, shop your local farmers Market, and send the produce back where it came from this may be a blessing in disguise. I am a single black girl from Blackcentury.com which is a niche dating service for blacks and whites.
Posted by rina25 at 09:49 PM


Gee, I didn''t know tomatoes come
in black and white varieties.

[rushlimpdrug]

Think I''ll have another donut.

On second thought think I''ll have
two donuts.

[missybelle-2009]

All diseases can be cured and avoided through prayer.

Posted by gopsoccermom at 11:03 AM : Jun 10, 2008"

So atheists and agnostics and satanics are the ones getting cancer, etc.? Wow, glad to know there''s an easy way to identify non-christians. Whew....

[mere891]

Salmonella infection begins when you ingest one of the various types of salmonella bacteria %u2014 with S. enteritidis, S. typhi and S. choleraesuis responsible for most salmonella-related illnesses. Reservoirs for the microorganism include pet reptiles, dogs and cats, pigs and cattle, infected humans, contaminated water, raw dairy products and chicken eggs. Salmonella can survive for months in water, ice, sewage and frozen meat.

[pensacola88]

It was amazing to take a health class in the ''70s and read about typhoid, cholera, and amebic dysentary epidemics.

We also had a sensational report and petition circulating about the presence of mono hydroxide found in high concentrations in nearly every dead organism that had just died. It turned out that mono hydroxide was just simple water.

Sounds like the country wants President Bush to hold
a national Pottey School, so we can all be healthy again.

[newsjunky5]

Salmonella contamination can be caused by bird droppings. Chicken or turkey farm run-off would be more likely than cattle, as was the case with the spinach.

[mere891]

tucanofulano & darnedsocks....last outbreak in spinach was e coli, from feces, from contaminated irrigation in the fields. Animals farmed nearby. Not from humans defecating in the fields.
Salmonella different bug altogether. Commercial produce packers have huge operations and wash the produce etc. Better to look into the water supply & health inspections for the commercial packers and commercail transporters-than farm workers in the field for this large an outbreak. The states affected were displayed on US maps on all of the major news outlets several times. NC was not amongst them. VA was the closest affected state to NC. Although I was searching this article as well for a list of the states. It seemed most were further west and south west. One in NE was Connecticut.

[newsjunky5]

"All diseases can be cured and avoided through prayer.

Posted by gopsoccermom at 11:03 AM : Jun 10, 2008"

------------------------------------

So what happens if you pray to remain healthy, but somebody else gives you a bad tomato and prays for you to fall ill? Did you ever consider this scenario gopsoccermom? What''s your opinion? Have you ever purposefuly given someone a bad tomato?

[darnedsocks]

SO WHERE IS THIS SALMONELLA COMING FROM AND HOW IS IT SPREADING ACROSS THE COUNTRY? DID ALL THESE TOMOATOES COME FROM ONE FIELD AND THEN WAS DISTRIBUTED? DID ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS DEFACATE IN A FIELD WHERE THEY WERE BEING GROWN OR ARE THERE ANIMALS POOPING ON THEM? WHAT IS THE ROOT CAUSE?!

[starleo146]

Well this has been very informative, shop your local farmers Market, and send the produce back where it came from this may be a blessing in disguise. e are the best country in the world just got lousy leaders who care about money more than the people they are suppose to serve we will fix this one this time first spinach, then lettuce, now tomatoes so I guess they do not want us to have salads Been fun I got to go have a great day all

[slim1h2o]

Wouldn''''t it be nice to know if you live in one of these states?

Posted by yongamerica at 11:49 AM : Jun 10, 2008

I know about NC,,there is no outbreak here,,but they pulling tomatos of the shelves here, just in case.

I''m sure that is going on in your area as well.

[videoamerica]

Ok, so what are the 17 states affected? - Poor reporting.

[starleo146]

What a bunch of crappp reporting here. Except for the cancer patient that died in Texas, there is not one mention of the other SIXTEEN (16) STATES REPORTING A Tomato Salmonella OUTBREAK.

Wouldn''''t it be nice to know if you live in one of these states?

Posted by yongamerica at 11:49 AM : Jun 10, 200

You are right crapp that is what we are talking about and we gave all the solutions we could think of

[yongamerica]

What a bunch of crappp reporting here. Except for the cancer patient that died in Texas, there is not one mention of the other SIXTEEN (16) STATES REPORTING A Tomato Salmonella OUTBREAK.

Wouldn''t it be nice to know if you live in one of these states?

[starleo146]

Please invite gopsoccermom to a few of your prayer meetings she needs some sense knocked into her invite her to the whipping

Posted by starleo14672 at 11:29 AM : Jun 10, 2008

Great idea, I could film it too and release it under the title: Gopsoccermilf S&M.

Posted by bgwinnett at 11:39 AM : Jun 10,

Yea you can put it on " you tube" will you please

[starleo146]

starleo14672, I dont know what satire is.

Posted by gopsoccermom at 11:39 AM : Jun 10, 2008

I know poor thing, now look what you have done you got me feeling sorry for you

[starleo146]

All diseases can be cured and avoided through prayer.

Posted by gopsoccermom at 11:03 AM : Jun 10, 2008

Sorry that is just wrong. Deseases takes meds to get over, where prayer may help the mental condition of the patient, it will do no good for the desease its self.

But we do have time on our side ,,time heals all wounds.

Think about it.

Posted by slim1h2o at 11:22 AM : Ju

You are absolutely right about medication slim and prayer after care does help. Poor soccermom what happened there? Oh I know she forgot her meds

[slim1h2o]

You call him Vice President? I call him Dart Vader!!!

Posted by starleo14672 at 11:37 AM : Jun 10, 2008

Actually I call him something else,,but I can''t print it here though. LOL Well I could,,but.........!

[gopsoccermom]

starleo14672, I dont know what satire is.

[bgwinnett]

Please invite gopsoccermom to a few of your prayer meetings she needs some sense knocked into her invite her to the whipping

Posted by starleo14672 at 11:29 AM : Jun 10, 2008

Great idea, I could film it too and release it under the title: Gopsoccermilf S&M.