I was reading the Frantic Foodie blog over at the Seattle PI, and Keren was expressing her dismay on the tomato recall.
I have a ton of thoughts on this, and wouldn't you know, I write a blog! I have an outlet for these tomato-ey thoughts! And you can read them, right now! Oh, the exclamations!
My Thoughts on the Great Tomato Recall '08
1) The FDA provides a list of safe states to eat tomatoes grown and harvested from. This list is NOT the same as the map shown on NBC last night of states with reported illnesses. While we have a reported illness from Washington, I don't believe we even have Washington tomatoes in circulation yet - it's too early.
Watching the NBC news last night I got the impression the FDA had expanded their warning to ALL red round and Roma tomatoes. Either the news was misleading, or I wasn't paying full attention - both could be accurate, I suppose.
I checked the FDA site again, and that is not true. If the grocers around here are pulling their Romas from California (where most of our produce is from right now) it's because of the media hype and not the FDA warning. Cali is on the list of states NOT affected.
2) There are only 20-something cases throughout the entire country. Edited 10:58am 6-10-08 - Yikes, there are a lot more cases now, but my opinion remains the same. The FDA is very concerned, which is great, but my opinion is that your chances of getting sick from a fresh tomato are still pretty slim. You are more likely to get sick from germs while pushing your shopping cart.
3) The Yakima Fruit Market is still offering California grown Roma tomatoes. I'm sure you can guess they're not flying off the shelf. But California is on the Safe List. Of course, you can also go with the BC Hothouse On-the-Vine tomatoes (from Canada) if you're still worried. You have tomato options.
4) Please ALWAYS practice TCS when handling tomatoes. There's a risk in eating almost anything these days; even a tomato from your garden can make you ill if not handled properly.
So fellow Tomato Tasters, Salsa Dudes, Spaghetti Sauce Moms and BLT Babes: Be thorough, keep your eyes open, and don't be afraid to eat your veggies.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
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, a book by Karin Bagnall Poage and photographer Royal S. Cardon. Celebrating the Yakima Fruit Market's 70th anniversary! Stop by the market, or click the title link above to order through Amazon!
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At least your phone calls are not people looking for "Beanie Babies!" What we need now some humorous cult crazy fad to get people off the food issues of today. (Where I used to work I would get bombarded with calls for the toys, just because of our business name.) Have a carnival target practice with those overrippened romas-3 shots for 50 cents-might recoup something there.
Kathy I think you're on to something. I told Dale - we should have pictures of each of the presidential candidates. Sell roma tomatoes for $0.50/piece to throw at them. Wouldn't that be hilarious? He didn't think it was as funny as I did. ;)
Kittitas Greenhouse has been selling their WA grown tomatoes at farmers markets for a few weeks. I'm sure they are uncontaminated. They are also $4-$5/pound, or were before the salmonella scare. They might be even more expensive this week!
Funny you commented just as I was posting the FDA has now added WA grown tomatoes to the safe list. phew.
I checked out out the Kittitas Greenhouse website and those tomatoes look awesome. We're lucky to have so many options around here!
Funny you commented just as I was posting the FDA has now added WA grown tomatoes to the safe list. phew.
I checked out out the Kittitas Greenhouse website and those tomatoes look awesome. We're lucky to have so many options around here!
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