Report: tainted tomatoes suspected

From the KSU Food Safety Network, this link to a story from New Mexico about a salmonella outbreak. From KOB.com in NM:

Health officials are issuing a warning about tainted tomatoes after more than 30 people from around New Mexico were infected with salmonella.
The source of the outbreak, which began around May 8, was previously unknown. Health experts said Saturday they now believe tomatoes are the culprit.
Health officials say seven New Mexico counties are affected by the outbreak, including Dona Ana, Socorro, Curry, McKinley, San Juan, Bernalillo and Sandoval.
State experts say uncooked tomatoes tainted with the strain of Salmonella St. Paul are making people sick with what is called salmonellosis. They say most people affected by the illness develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection.
The illness usually lasts four to seven days, and most persons recover without treatment.
The New Mexico Department of Health is warning physicians and patients to be aware of the symptoms, which could be a cause for hospitalization for infants and the elderly.
"We have alerted physicians and hospitals around the state to be on the lookout for people presenting with fever and diarrhea and to test those people for salmonella," said Dr. Mike Landen, deputy state epidemiologist with the Department of Health. "We are asking the public to take general precautions to avoid being exposed to salmonella and to seek health care if they develop a severe illness with fever and diarrhea."
The department says some of the infected tomatoes were bought from a Wal-Mart in Las Cruces or Farmington, a Lowe's in Las Cruces or Bashas' in Crownpoint. But they say other stores are probably selling the tomatoes too.
Health officials are still trying to pinpoint which tomatoes are carrying the bacteria.
Doctors recommend washing tomatoes before eating them and cooking any food which may contain salmonella. They also say to wash your hands and any surfaces where food comes into contact.

From Doug Powell at KSU in Barfblog:

A table of tomato-related North American outbreaks is available here. Tomatoes are one type of fresh produce where it appears pathogens like Salmonella can be internalized, which means washing is of little use. The problems need to be prevented on the farm. Regulators and the industry in the past have have released food safety guidelines for tomatoes, but there is a lack of verification; it is unclear if all growers are actually following the guidelines.

Guidelines are a first step, but we need more creative ways to compel everyone, from the person harvesting to the person distributing, to take food safety seriously, even in the absence of an outbreak.

Luedtke, A., Chapman, B. and Powell, D.A. 2003. Implementation and analysis of an on-farm food safety program for the production of greenhouse vegetables. Journal of Food Protection. 66:485-489.
Powell, D.A., Bobadilla-Ruiz, M., Whitfield, A. Griffiths, M.G.. and Luedtke, A. 2002. Development, implementation and analysis of an on-farm food safety program for the production of greenhouse vegetables in Ontario, Canada. Journal of Food Protection. 65: 918- 923.
We also published a book chapter entitled Implementing On-Farm Food Safety Programs in Fruit and Vegetable Cultivation, in the recently published, Improving the Safety of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables.