| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2008 
Tomato Farms Scoured But No Salmonella Source Found
 Associated Press
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| | Farmer Robert Dodd displays some of his tomato crop at his farm in Hanover County, Va. As salmonella cases continue to climb, the government is checking if tainted tomatoes really are to blame for the record outbreak — or if the problem is with another ingredient, or a warehouse that is contaminating newly harvested tomatoes. (AP/Steve Helber) | | |
Autlan, Mexico - Inspectors are collecting soil, water and produce samples, reviewing export logs and combing packing plants in three major tomato-growing states in Mexico.
But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears no closer to finding the source of a mysterious salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 900 people.
The FDA is not even sure tomatoes are the cause - adding peppers and cilantro to its list of foods under investigation in the outbreak.
A team of three FDA inspectors has gone through five farms in the western Mexican states Jalisco and Sinaloa in the last two weeks, looking at all aspects of tomato production.
The results can't come too soon for the three Mexican states targeted by the FDA, along with farms in Texas and Florida.
"We're demanding that they release those results as soon as possible," said Manuel Tarriba, president of Sinaloa's Tomato Growers Association.
The FDA said yesterday it is now looking at cilantro and jalapeno and serrano peppers - ingredients used to make salsa - as possible sources of the outbreak. |
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