By Cheryl E. Moose, The News Herald, Morganton, N.C.
Jun. 13–VALDESE — David Rakestraw at the Penny Patch knows exactly where the tomatoes he sells come from.
So do Juanita Carswell at Eighteen Produce in Morganton and Sexton Digh and Boyce Crowe at the Burke County Farmers Market in Valdese.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t yet know where tomatoes containing salmonella came from. However, it’s said tomatoes grown in North and South Carolina are safe.
Salmonella in tomatoes made 228 people sick in 23 states since June 1. Farms in Mexico and parts of central Florida, two chief tomato suppliers, are still on the suspect list.
“Folks started calling Monday asking about our tomatoes,” Rakestraw said. “They love them and are looking for them.”
On Friday, Rakestraw, Carswell and Digh sold tomatoes from the Carolinas (including the much-anticipated Lincoln County fruit.)
The Penny Patch and Eighteen Produce buy some tomatoes from a Florida wholesaler, but the FDA said the tomatoes aren’t from central Florida.
Neither Rakestraw nor Carswell buy tomatoes from Mexico, they said.
Carswell said one customer drove from Lenoir on Friday to buy Lincoln County tomatoes.
“Our sales have increased,” she continued. “People know they can come here and get a good tomato.”
Places you can’t get tomatoes include fast-food restaurants. Signs on McDonalds’ doors say they aren’t selling them. Taco Bell isn’t either. Neither is LongHorn Steakhouse in Hickory, Gwen Deal said Friday at the Valdese farmers market.
She said, “I come here every week for tomatoes and beets.”
She was out of luck on the tomatoes in Valdese. David McKinney and his wife, Alda, bought the last ones.
The McKinneys craved cheeseburgers for supper and knew they probably couldn’t get them like they like them — with tomatoes — at a restaurant. They ate at home Friday night with the assurance their tomatoes were safe.
They bought the tomatoes from Digh, who sold produce out of his van on Friday.
Digh doesn’t grow his own produce anymore — his arthritis is too bad.
He bought his tomatoes for Friday from a South Carolina farmer and sold all 20 in the first hour of business.
On the FDA’s do-not-eat list are raw red plum, red Roma and red round tomatoes grown outside specific states or countries the FDA cleared because they were not harvesting when the outbreak began or were not selling their tomatoes in places where people got sick.
Grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached are safe. That is not because there is anything biologically safer about those with a vine, but because the sick people assured investigators those aren’t the kinds of tomato they ate.
While folks who planted their own tomatoes at home ?like the McKinneys and Crowe ? wait for the fruit to ripen for plucking, they can rely on produce stores and stands that know where their tomatoes were grown.
If you do not go to the store armed with a list of safe sources, or if a store or restaurant manager cannot assure you their tomatoes came from safe regions, the FDA’s food safety chief, Dr. David Acheson has this advice: “If you don’t know, don’t take the risk.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
The FDA is directing consumers to its Web site — www.fda.gov — for updated lists of the safe regions.
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