Associate commissioner for foods at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) David Acheson, said that nine people who became ill with Salmonella had eaten at two different outlets of the same restaurant chain. He would not name the chain.The FDA has found th Salmonella outbreak to only have affected raw round, plum and Roma tomatoes, and has issued a safe list of states and countries whose tomatoes are not associated with the outbreak.
California, Georgia, New York, Canada, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic are among tomato producers on the safe list. The FDA also has cleared tomatoes from North Florida.
The salmonella outbreak has been disastrous for the U.S. tomato industry, which produced $1.28 billion of the fruit last year.Concerned Mexican authorities say says its tomatoes are being unjustly targeted as the source of the salmonella outbreak. They note that rare Salmonella Saintpaul bacteria has never been found in Mexico. Some shipments from Mexico have been stopped at the border, which has analysts worried that Mexico will have a glut of rejected produce.
Florida has also hit back saying they were the first state in the country to adopt a program with mandatory polity inspection and audit of its tomatoes.
The FDA is under increasing pressure from consumer groups and Congress to do more to protect the food supply.
Officials have said that outbreaks of food-borne illnesses are rare. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there have been at least 13 multi-state Salmonella outbreaks linked to different types of tomatoes since 1990.
One of the worst outbreaks in the United States in recent times was caused by tainted spinach in 2006. That E. coli outbreak killed three and sickened more than 200.
