The US FDA is lifting the warning on eating tomatoes it issued on June 7 because of the country’s largest produce-associated foodborne Salmonella outbreak. The source of the Salmonella infections, all said to be “genetically identical” isolates of an uncommon serovar is still to be discovered, although epidemiological evidence associated it with salsa containing fresh tomatoes. Later the possibility that other salsa ingredients such as jalapeno peppers or cilantro might be the culprit has been raised. So far no one seems to know how that thousand plus cases became infected with the Salmonella, although the evidence still suggests a single common source that was widely distributed in the food chain. Meanwhile the tomato industry has suffered serious economic losses and consumers are still wary. If Mrs. R. is any gauge, many people have changed their grocery buying habits — even though she never believed tomatoes were the cause of the outbreak (the fact that she is married to an epidemiologist may have colored her opinion a bit). “It just made them unappetizing,” she told me. We have a tomato plant that is producing lots of tomatoes, so we haven’t had to depend on the store. Poll results, in fact, show she is typical, and it’s not just tomatoes:

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