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Salmonella probe adds foods served with tomatoes 7-1-08
(CHICAGO) Adding to tomato confusion, the government is about to start
testing numerous other types of fresh produce in the hunt for the source of the
nation's record salmonella outbreak — even as it insists tomatoes remain the
leading suspect.
Investigators are mum on exactly what other vegetables are getting tracked.
Items commonly served with fresh tomatoes is the only hint Food and Drug
Administration food safety chief Dr. David Acheson would give, calling it
"irresponsible" to point a finger until he has more evidence that some other
food really deserves the extra scrutiny.
"Tomatoes aren't off the hook," he stressed. "It's just that there is clearly a
need to think beyond tomatoes."
Still, Acheson widened FDA's probe on Tuesday, activating an emergency network
of food laboratories around the country in anticipation of lots of additional
samples to test.
The reason is that the outbreak continues, with 869 people now confirmed having
taken ill. Most troublesome, at least 179 of them fell ill in June, the latest
on June 20. That is more than two months after the first salmonella illnesses
appeared, meaning the outbreak is continuing weeks longer than food-poisoning
specialists had expected — and suggesting the culprit is still on the market.
Over the weekend, disease detectives with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention began interviewing people sickened in June to find out what they ate
and to compare their diets with those of healthy relatives and neighbors.
Officials wouldn't reveal early findings, except to say they supported the
investigation's new move.
Among the possibilities FDA is exploring is whether tomatoes and other produce
are sharing a common packing or shipping site where both might become
contaminated, or whether multiple foods might be tainted while being grown on
adjoining farms or with common water sources.
Pressure is increasing on the FDA to solve the case, with the tomato industry
suffering millions of dollars in losses and pushing for Congress to investigate
how the agency handled the outbreak.
But Acheson said Tuesday that there's a growing misconception in the public that
if tomatoes really were to blame, the outbreak would only have lasted six weeks.
That's just not true, he said, pointing to farms that rotate harvests so as to
keep producing tomatoes for months.
Tomatoes first became a suspect because of what are called "case-control"
studies rapidly conducted in New Mexico and Texas, the outbreak's center, CDC
food-poisoning specialist Dr. Robert Tauxe said.
Those kinds of studies compare the sick to people who are otherwise similar —
in income, lifestyle, where they live — but healthy. In those initial studies,
about 80 percent of the ill reported eating certain types of fresh tomatoes, far
more than the healthy group did, Tauxe said. Statistically, the association was
too strong to think it a coincidence.
Some food-poisoning experts say the CDC missed a key step in not taking those
studies a step further and trying to trace why some of the healthy ate tomatoes
without harm.
For now, the FDA continues to urge consumers nationwide to avoid raw red plum,
red Roma or red round tomatoes unless they were grown in specific states or
countries that the agency has cleared of suspicion. Check the FDA's Web site —
http://www.fda.gov — for an updated list. Also safe are grape tomatoes, cherry
tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached.
That advice is coming under fire too because tomatoes are sent through multiple
repacking and distribution sites around the country, even to Mexico and back,
regardless of where they're grown. But Acheson said the advice would be
fine-tuned only if new science emerges.
Even Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt expressed frustration
Tuesday that the case isn't solved.
"Nothing happens fast enough when you have a problem like this," Leavitt said as
he asked Congress for more funds and stronger legal powers for food and consumer
safety agencies. Still, "I feel confident we will find the solution to this
problem."
Comment:
It is the surest bet to buy only organic produce until this scare passes. Organic produce is never supposed to come into contact with waste water, whereas non organic may be fertilized with it. There is still a chance of cross contamination with people touching the conventional produce and then touching organic. Please place your produce in a separate tote or plastic bag before you put it in the cart. Last months news showed a study where more e-coli and feces were found in the cart than in the restroom. Make sure you properly wash your fruits before consumption with a good peroxide solution.
What you need is 3% hydrogen peroxide, the same strength available for disinfecting wounds or gargling, and plain white vinegar or apple cider vinegar and 2 clean "spray bottle", like the ones you use to dampen laundry before ironing. When cleaning fruits or vegetables, simply spray them well first with both the vinegar and the hydrogen peroxide, and then rinse them off with filtered water.
On another level, this situation concerns me because; were are finding out how ill-equipped our government is in stopping the spread of and organism. Also, we may be giving terrorist ideas with all the news coverage.