Killer Tomatoes

[mjarrels]

As hot and dry as the past week has been, can't buy a tomatoe due to the recent recall! I guess that I will just keep the bacon in the freezer until my plants produce!

mark

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Okay, I guess I live under a rock, but what's the deal with tomatoes? I see FDA warnings posted at food places and that they're not serving tomatoes. Is this Mad Tomato Scare?

 

[Soundguy]

Big food poisoning cases ( or was it e.coli? )linked to raw tomatoes int he south and mideastern part of the country.. all same 'genetic footprint'..

soundguy

 

[Western]

It's a strain of salmanilla (spell check). effects the large slicing and roma type tomatoes. So far 16 states have cases and 1 reported death. The map they showed last night on the news, was pretty much all over. The cases that is.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Yea, just went on a couple news sites. I haven't had much time lately. To tell you the truth, I have watched exactly 0 hours of tv in the last 2 months. I feel better too!

You know, I don't recall this stuff happening when I was younger. Maybe it did but I never paid attention.

 

[4720 OWNER]

Someone trying to harvest a fresh manured field again? Heard that lots are getting away from chem fertilizer due to the cost and there are actual shortages of manure!

 

[Bird]

Yea, just went on a couple news sites. I haven't had much time lately. To tell you the truth, I have watched exactly 0 hours of tv in the last 2 months. I feel better too!

You know, I don't recall this stuff happening when I was younger. Maybe it did but I never paid attention.

I suspect it might have happened, but in many cases, wasn't diagnosed, and then, too, we didn't have the instant news communication. I don't understand how they made the decisions they did, but from what I've read, you're OK using grape or cherry tomatoes, or tomatoes that still have part of the vine attached and no breaks in the skin. I found in our Super Walmart, they've removed the other tomatoes, but still have the grape and cherry varieties, as well as some larger tomatoes with a bit of vine attached.

 

[tallyho8]

Many of us have probably had salmonella poisoning several times in the last decade and simply dismissed it as "a touch of something" and gotten better in a couple of days. I believe that years ago many cases such as this were simply undiagnosed and unreported as this is usually a relatively trivial illness. The reported death in this case was a man who died of cancer and they just suspect that his death was hastened by salmonella poisoning.

I'm sitting here eating a salad with store-bought tomatoes in it right now and I'm not worried in the least.

What I don't understand is why it takes them so long to determine where the bad tomatoes came from. They have said that they did not come from any of the southern states with the possible exception of Florida, but they have not said where they might have come from.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Tallyho, Bird, you're probably right. I can remember going to the Chinese buffet in town then food shopping at Wally World. We would eat, then drive across the road to Wally World. We would get a couple aisles in and I would think,
"Boy, I'm going to have to hit the can when we get home."
Next aisle, "Boy, I think I'm going to have to go before we leave."
Next aisle, "Oh no, cheeks don't fail me now!" While doing the duck walk to the bathroom.
Needless to say, no more Chinese Buffet.

 

[Soundguy]

Yep.. brown alert ain't fun.

Might be the oil. i got a friend and she can't eat at most oriental fast food places.. it runs right thru her.

As far as florida as a source? dunno. i know we have had no cases of the salmonella (sp? ) so far.. or at least as of last night.

soundguy

 

[charlz]

Article I saw yesterday listed mostly western states as places where cases have appeared, although Virginia was also listed. New Mexico and Texas apparently are where most cases are. Possibly coming from that area or Mexico?

 

[mjarrels]

BIL many years ago worked for a local food service company... asian buffets always wanted vegies just before spoilage to save a few dollars. To this day, he will not eat at these places!

mark

 

[Soundguy]

On the flip side.. a buffet is going to immediatly consume ( use ) large amounts of vegies daily. if they are buying still good food.. but it only has a 2-3 day life span left.. I call that good use of resources. IE.. buy a tomatoe that will be ok for consumption for 2-3 days and use it immediatly.. vs buying one good for 10 days and setting it on a shelf.

I've worked in stocking restaurants.. lots of produce gets ordered and sat on shelfs and goes bad... lemons, potatoes and onions are the fastest.... if you run a place where you can use it up as it comes in.. more power to ya.

soundguy

 

[Egon]

Away back on the real farm we used to be able to store potatoes for year round use. Onions lasted about 5 months.

 

[dfeck]

As for the Chinese food, My wife has serious boughts with Chinese food to the point she simply doesn't eat it. She later found out the problem is MSG. Chinese are notorious for using large amounts of MSG to enhance the flavor of their food. It's gotten so widespread that Chinese resturants will list on thier menus they use NO MSG in their food. She still doesn't trust they don't so she doesn't risk it. Then again, I tend to agree with her. We had a local Chinese joint closed down recently by the health department because they found out the chicken wasn't chicken after all. They found it to be seagull!

 

[Bird]

Gosh, you guys don't like the Chinese buffets when that's our favorite place to eat. We've tried every one in the area; one fair, two pretty good, one even better, and one outstanding.

 

[Soundguy]

Same here Bird. We have 3 palces in driving distance.. 2 pretty good.. one great.

soundguy

 

[tallyho8]

We have a couple of great Chinese/Japanese buffets in our area also and I love their Sushi which I just started eating a couple of years ago.

As cheap as chicken is, it seems like it would not be cost-saving to use seagull (or cat) instead. We hear stories about this all the time but I believe most are urban legends.

 

[Soundguy]

Yeah.. I imagine seagull would be a lil spendy..

soundguy

 

[Egon]

Then you gotta take into account what is American Chinese food and which is food as would actually be eaten in China. Seeing as China is a large country with many different climate zones and dialects their local food is as varied as their dialects and regions!