There’s ooze in the news, as the salmonella peanut butter bug spreads. It seems more products are involved than first were suspected, though no jars of grocery-store peanut butter are in the mix.

So if you buy by the jar for your PB&J (that’s peanut butter and jelly to you non-believers in the ultimate comfort food), you’re safe. But if you buy certain brands of crackers, cookies or ice cream with peanut butter, you may be in for a track meet between your bedroom and the bathroom.

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At least the tomato industry won’t take an unfair hit this time — but Americans are still at risk, due to another outbreak of salmonella food poisoning.

Unlike last fall’s outbreak which afflicted hundreds if not thousands of Americans (and finally was tracked to Mexican-grown Serrano peppers), this one has been traced quickly: to peanut butter that’s been sold in five-pound tubs to institutions such as universities, hospitals, nursing homes and restaurants.

In fact, King Nut Companies of Ohio already has issued a recall and an apology.

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You like tomato and I like serrano. Tomato. Serrano.  Tomato. Serrano. Let’s call the whole thing off!

Those lyrics might not have passed muster with George and Ira Gershwin, but they certainly apply today, now that the Food and Drug Administration has pinpointed its search for the salmonella Saintpaul outbreak to two farms in Mexico — and to serrano peppers, not tomatoes, as originally believed.

Tomatoes still aren’t entirely off the hook in this investigatory tug-of-war, the FDA says, since the same farms in which salmonella was found in the irrigation supply and in peppers also could have exposed tomatoes to the same contaminated water. Jalapeno peppers also are suspect. But at least after more than three months of futile searching and more than 1,300 documented cases of Americans suffering disastrous digestive disorders, the feds seem to be onto something. (more…)

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When it comes to the disastrous digestive disorders caused by salmonella Saintpaul – and their mysterious origin — perhaps we should have known from the start that tomatoes might not be the bad apples.
Tomatoes, after all, are soft and juicy and seem relatively harmless, even if they have been used historically – especially as rotten tomatoes – to hurl at performers whose acts bombed.
But jalapenos? Those veggies can vex even in the best of circumstances, and certainly not everyone should eat them. Tasty as jalapenos can be, not even all bona fide, card-carrying, iron-stomached Texans raised on Tex-Mex food are immune from their indigestive powers. (more…)

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Raw red tomatoes have consumers seeing red. Pitifully pained people in several states, including Texas, continue to suffer food poisoning via tomatoes tainted with salmonella, a bacteria which can cause diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, fever and abdominal pain. You know, like reading your income tax statement.

In other words, your price for munching a juicy red tomato with your burger or salad may be spending  days lurching between your bed and your bathroom – and all because you swallowed rather than switched. Oh, you know tomatoes can be rotten. But no, you eat them anyway, gulping down a familiar food which you trust will be healthy, as it’s been so many times before.

The source of this rotten tomato outbreak isn’t definite, but the Food and Drug Administration does believe one thing: Certain tomatoes remain A-OK. Reportedly, grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, homegrown tomatoes and tomatoes with the vine still attached are safe enough to eat without losing your lunch.

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