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Salmonella Outbreak is Biggest Ever Tied to Produce

Investigators still aren't sure of the source of the outbreak

June 28, 2008

Food Safety • FDA Issues Warning About Frozen Seafood • Whole Foods Extends Beef Recall • Whole Foods Recalls Fresh Ground Beef • Six New E. coli Cases Reported In Massachusetts • FDA Says It Found Salmonella Source In Mexico • U.S. Peppers Get Clean Bill Of Health • Jalapeño Peppers from Mexico Recalled • Tomatoes Get the All-Clear From FDA • Salmonella Toll Quietly Climbs • USDA to List Retailers in Meat Recalls • Emergency Regs Needed for Tracking Produce, Food Groups Say • Nebraska Beef Recall Expanded to 5.3 Million Pounds • Consumer Group Presses Feds to Fix Food System • Kroger Expands Ground Beef Recall • Salmonella Outbreak is Biggest Ever Tied to Produce • E. coli Outbreak May Be Linked To Kroger Ground Beef • Salmonella: Trickier Than Imagined • Congressional Report Faults FDA Inaction • Tomatoes Off the Menu as Feds Search for Source • FDA 'Inaction' Blamed for Salmonella Outbreak • Restaurants Shun Tomatoes In Wake Of Salmonella Outbreak • FDA Warns Of Tomato-Linked Salmonella • USDA Bans Downer Cow Slaughter • CDC Links 2006 Salmonella Outbreak to Dog Food --- • More ...

Tomatoes are back on grocers' shelves and on McDonald's hamburgers, but federal investigators still haven't identified the source of the salmonella outbreak tentatively linked to certain types of tomatoes and they concede that the outbreak may be continuing -- meaning consumers may still be getting sick.

In its latest report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) raised the number of salmonella cases linked to raw tomatoes to 810 people in 36 states, making this biggest U.S. salmonella outbreak linked to fresh produce.

The actual number is likely much higher. The CDC estimates that for every case that is reported, there are 30 cases that go unreported.

Symptoms of salmonella include bloody diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever.

While CDC scientists say the link to tomatoes still appears "strong," investigators are looking at other culprits as well.

"We always keep an open mind," CDC official Patricia Griffin said.

Not only have investigators not pinpointed the source of the outbreak, they're not sure it's over.

The latest known salmonella victim became ill on June 15, more than two months after the first reported illness and weeks after the first warnings about tomoatoes were issued.

Investigators have looked at farms in Florida, Mexico and elsewhere and they've examined packing houses and other facilities but have so far come up empty-handed.

Officials caution that the source may never be found.

The task is made more difficult because many tomato fields are no longer in production. Also, tomatoes from various sources are routinely mixed together at packing houses and other transit points, making it nearly impossible to say for sure where a given tomato came from.

Tomatoes thought to be the riskiest include raw red Roma, raw red plum, raw red round tomatoes, or products that contain these types of raw red tomatoes.

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