Salmonella Tomatos.......

[irregularjoe]

I'm already going through withdrawl pains. Like a junkie without his fix.

I consider fresh ripe tomatos as being essential to life as water and air.

You pay exorborent food prices and end up in the hospital. Pretty sad indeed.

Just another example of importing food when you can easily grow it yourself, or at least get it locally.

Do we REALLY need to import grapes from Chile and crabmeat from Vietnam? Nothing against those countries, but come on.

Buy local and keep the source accountable.

AZ Salmonella Tomatos

I really HAVE to get my garden growing.

Edited June 5, 2008 by irregularjoe

[JDoors]

What's changed really? Our food's always been grown in poop (I'm sure that's something city slickers prefer not to know). I bet the main change is national reporting of such outbreaks.

Help:

FitWash - Fruit and Vegetable Wash

[irregularjoe]

What's changed really? Our food's always been grown in poop (I'm sure that's something city slickers prefer not to know). I bet the main change is national reporting of such outbreaks.

Help:

FitWash - Fruit and Vegetable Wash

What's changed is that the source is now worldwide. It's cheaper to import food from halfway around the world than it is to grow it locally. At least that's what the agribusiness bottom liners think.

The more unwashed hands handling your food, the more likely it is to be a carrier of food borne illness.

And don't even get me started on the genetically modified fruits and vegatables that are artificially manipulated so that watermelon is available for Christmas and winter squash is available for the Fourth of July. And of couse they each taste like a bowling bowl.

Edited June 5, 2008 by irregularjoe

[JDoors]

Hence the FitWash recommendation. The other side of that coin is fruits and vegetables are available year-round. We used to do without for six or more months out of the year. Are they at their peak of perfection? Not always. Is it better to have fruits and vegetables available than not? Definitely (Americans don't eat enough to begin with).

[irregularjoe]

Hence the FitWash recommendation. The other side of that coin is fruits and vegetables are available year-round. We used to do without for six or more months out of the year. Are they at their peak of perfection? Not always. Is it better to have fruits and vegetables available than not? Definitely (Americans don't eat enough to begin with).

I disagree. Eat what's in season. Keep it local and if possible organic.

FitWash is fine, as long as it's not cross contaminated with salmonella. The only thing that is safe then is to cook it to at least 165 degrees F for at least 90 seconds.

E-Coli is even worse. Neither cooking or freezing kills it. Expect a long and painful hospital stay. You MIGHT make it out alive. And if you do you will be eating baby food for quite some time. And then there's the real whopper (no pun intended to Burger King) Botulism. It's time to get the stomach pump out and lay in agony for five days while you vomit so much that there's nothing left. Including essential fluids. Now you are at the severe dehydration state, yet you can't keep any fluid down.. You are now more or less incoherent, your only concern being where the closest bathroom is. That goes on for a few days. Usually at this point you consider any food with complete disdain.

Edited June 6, 2008 by irregularjoe

[Pete_C]

Having no spleen I am essentially immune compromised (amongst other things) and have long had a policy of safe food handling. (The second time it felt that I had eaten a bag of razorblades and salt and had diarrhea for a week was enough).

This means raw meat in one drawer and encased in a ziplock to ensure it does not spread any contamination.

Lunch meats and such all go into individual sealed containers. Keeps em fresh and lowers risk of contamination.

Sealed packs (lunchmeats) get a rinse in a sink of cold water with chlorox in it when I bring them home.

Veggies get similar treatment; they get a good rinse (almost a soak) in a sink full of water with enough chlorox (3 TBS per gallon 2 minutes is enough to kill anything it is recommended for sanitizing cutting boards and surfaces. Half strength- or less- and half time is enough for most veggie sanitizing. 1 ounce or two teaspoons per gallon is considered adequate for chlorinating drinking water ) and and then rinse in cold water and either a spin in the salad drier or air dry before going into appropriate storage.

Fridge gets regular wash with chlorox and baking soda solution.

I like to line my veggie bins with newspaper too.

And if they are getting eaten raw, veggies get another wash when they are prepared.

Personally, I am not concerned about this latest scare.

Yes, if they are "organic" or from south of the border they may be using manure for fertilizer or raw sewage for irrigation. (Salmonella from bird manure) or they could just have gotten bird droppings on them. Or it could be cross contamination in the market; Someone goes and gets chicken in a leaky pack and then goes to the veggie section and starts picking through the tomatoes. Maybe even just being placed in the shopping basket without being bagged first .

I pretty much assume that everything in the supermarket is probably contaminated with something from the common cold or flu to ecoli from dirty babies leaky diapers. I do not trust those wipes or waterless (alcohol based ) hand sanitizers to work (the alcohol takes to long , is to weak and evaporates to quickly). No I am not a germiphobe who wears latex gloves; but I wash my hands when I get home and wash the food before I eat it. When I select meat, I take advantage of the plastic bags provided one for a glove and one to put the meat in. But I still accept that others are not careful and that all the surfaces I contact and probably all the food has some pathogens on it.

http://www.clorox.com/cleaner_home/article...t_food_bacteria

http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Avian/pfs27.htm

I tried fitwash, do not trust it not enough of anything to do the job. Best to use lots of water and some chlorox.

This way at least you wash most of the stuff off.

The big problem with ecoli as with botulism is not the bacteria themselves, but the toxins they make when they die.

Still I would like it better if all meat and produce were irradiated with lethal levels of gamma rays after being sealed in some sort of packaging which kept them safe from other forms of contamination afterwards.

Edited June 5, 2008 by Pete_C

[JDoors]

... No I am not a germiphobe ...

No, not with a missing spleen, you HAVE to be super careful. Chlorine has its critics too though (toxic byproducts when it degrades).

I guess I'm less worried than many as I (like many others) HAVE had mild food poisoning and it's no biggie. I've had flu symptoms that were MUCH worse. I mean, like, Oh-God-I-think-I'm-gonna-die flu symptoms. But that's me, your mileage may vary.

[Pete_C]

... No I am not a germiphobe ...

No, not with a missing spleen, you HAVE to be super careful. Chlorine has its critics too though (toxic byproducts when it degrades).

I guess I'm less worried than many as I (like many others) HAVE had mild food poisoning and it's no biggie. I've had flu symptoms that were MUCH worse. I mean, like, Oh-God-I-think-I'm-gonna-die flu symptoms. But that's me, your mileage may vary.

Not that worried about the "byproducts' of using chlorine. I rinse things off afterwards and Dallas now uses Ozone and UV light to sterilize the water. (Sure beats chlorine when lake algae is in bloom. The chlorine left the water tasting like dirt when it had algae in the source water , ozone leaves it tasteless).

All the local stores seem to have pulled tomatoes, except my favorite "Sprouts Farmers Market" which offers hothouse grown on the vine cluster tomatoes.

http://www.sprouts.com/flyer/view_flyer.as...26+Marsh+%23103

Yum Yum

Fresh ripe Texas Peaches, Colorado Hothouse cluster tomatoes,

The plums and apricots are from California , and do not have as much flavor as the local ones.

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http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa...la.77e329a.html

Federal health officials cleared Texas tomatoes as the source of a salmonella outbreak as the number of confirmed salmonella cases in Texas increased to 56 on Friday.

Tomatoes grown in California, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina also appear to be blameless, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Those imported from Belgium, Canada, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, the Netherlands and Puerto Rico also did not appear to be the source.

http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/saintpaul/

I hear it has spread as far as Oregon and Idaho

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=To...=1&ct=title

http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/20...ase_linked.html

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html

Hmm, where else do we get tomatoes from ??? I think most of those I see are either Local Texas (hothouse in most cases) , Colorado hot house , or from Mexico.

Of course they have not cleared Florida either, but I do not think we get many Florida tomatoes in Texas; especially this time of year.

Edited June 7, 2008 by Pete_C

[JDoors]

Looks like they're pulling several varieties off the shelves and out of restaurants. No relief in site Joe!

[irregularjoe]

Looks like they're pulling several varieties off the shelves and out of restaurants. No relief in site Joe!

I just returned all the Safeway tomatoes I bought. Also the "on sale" watermelon that was about as ripe as a bowling ball.

I'm making a point now to save receipts from all grocery stores. It's bad enough paying rediculous prices for produce, but if it's not up to my standards, back it goes for a refund.

Tomatoes on the vine that are grown hydroponically seem to be exempt from the recent scare. I found some at a local Sprouts. $1.25 a pound. They look and smell good, like real tomatoes should. Of course they can't compare to your own garden grown.

I'm still trying to figure out how to grow veggies out here in Sub Sahara Arizona. The heat just kills everything.

Edited June 11, 2008 by irregularjoe

[bozodog]

IJ, you should grow in the winter time. That's when my cousin in Fla. plants her garden. She says it's too hot for veggies about the time MY garden here in Michigan just starts producing.

[TheTerrorist_75]

NY State grown tomatoes declared safe by FDA.

[Pete_C]

Looks like they're pulling several varieties off the shelves and out of restaurants. No relief in site Joe!

I just returned all the Safeway tomatoes I bought. Also the "on sale" watermelon that was about as ripe as a bowling ball.

I'm making a point now to save receipts from all grocery stores. It's bad enough paying rediculous prices for produce, but if it's not up to my standards, back it goes for a refund.

Tomatoes on the vine that are grown hydroponically seem to be exempt from the recent scare. I found some at a local Sprouts. $1.25 a pound. They look and smell good, like real tomatoes should. Of course they can't compare to your own garden grown.

I'm still trying to figure out how to grow veggies out here in Sub Sahara Arizona. The heat just kills everything.

Hey Joe, I too shop at Sprouts and love their produce.

Of course having grown up on a farm I can tell a ripe melon from one that was not ready to harvest by sight and smell ; never trust the thump test as all it reveals is that the melon was heavily watered before it was harvested making it "juicy" and heavier (hence a better profit ) and not necessarily ripe (which would produce likewise a juicy melon).

They sure had some nice red and green bell peppers along with those tomatoes, and the strawberries and cantaloupes too were fine.

[Karol]

I hope they find where those tomatoes came from. Last time I heard that they're coming really close to finding where those tomatoes are coming from. In Connecticut, which I live, the tomatoes are getting better (more of them to eat). The FDA has approved of tomatoes to be sold here, which I think is great! I hope it gets better.

Karol

[Pete_C]

I hope they find where those tomatoes came from. Last time I heard that they're coming really close to finding where those tomatoes are coming from. In Connecticut, which I live, the tomatoes are getting better (more of them to eat). The FDA has approved of tomatoes to be sold here, which I think is great! I hope it gets better.

Karol

On the news today they said that they had not cleared all the counties in Florida , nor a certain country starting with a M which accounts for 80% of the imported tomatoes.

But it could happen anywhere; birds , snakes, lizards all carry salmonella and could easily infect a crop with their droppings.

One more reason they should offer irradiated food , sealed for your protection and a long shelf life.