Consumers may be avoiding summertime's ripe, juicy tomatoes needlessly. While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) blamed the broad salmonella outbreak to fresh tomatoes a month ago, it has recently admitted that it might be wrong about the source of the bacterial contamination, which has sickened over 900 people since April.
About 1,700 tomatoes have been tested, and none has contained the Salmonella Saintpaul bacterium implicated in the outbreak. Meanwhile, more people have fallen ill [Los Angeles Times].
FDA inspectors are now considering jalapeno and serrano peppers as possible culprits, along with cilantro; all three ingredients are commonly mixed with tomatoes to make fresh salsa. While the public anxiously awaits answers, the produce industry is enraged: U.S. tomato growers say the salmonella scare has already cost them $100 million, and now pepper and cilantro growers may begin to feel the consumer backlash. "We all put public health first, but you ...
