On Saturday, the FDA released a warning advising people not to
eat red plum, red Roma and round red tomatoes since they’ve been
linked to a salmonella outbreak.
It’s been almost a week since the Food and Drug Administration warned people about eating certain types of tomatoes, and food chains as well as local restaurants have responded by pulling them off their menus and recipes.
On Saturday, the FDA released a warning advising people not to eat red plum, red Roma and round red tomatoes since they’ve been linked to a salmonella outbreak. So far more than 145 people have been sickened with the bacterial infection and one person has died as a result of it nationwide. While California tomatoes are exempt from the FDA warning, businesses are still taking precautionary measures.
Local restaurants like Straw Hat Pizza and Mountain Mike’s Pizza in Hollister have excluded tomatoes from their sandwiches and so have food chains such as Wendy’s and McDonald’s. Burger King’s Hollister location was not one of those affected by the ban.
The local tomato canneries for San Benito Foods also have not been affected by the tomato recall as it pertains only to fresh and not canned tomatoes.
“The tomatoes and tomato-based products were produced in accordance with good manufacturing practices and conformed in every respect to the State and Federal food regulations and laws,” said a statement by the company to its customers. “Our products have no association with the current fresh tomato recall.”
As for the supermarkets, Safeway has taken them off the shelves, but local market Hollister Super, which buys its tomatoes from San Francisco, had a third party company inspect the tomatoes and prove they have no sign of salmonella. But the inspection hasn’t proven to be enough for customers who are still staying away from the fruit scared of an infection.
“We’re not selling a lot of tomatoes,” said Jim Gibson, manager of Hollister Super. “People think we’re on our way to a time when naturally grown things will never cause harm, but that’s never going to happen.”
