Locally Grown Tomatoes Not Hurt By Salmonella Outbreak

The recent salmonella scare with certain varieties of tomatoes has resulted in the juicy, red fruit being pulled off menus at some local restaurants.

However, it has not hurt sales of locally grown tomatoes, in some cases even causing an increase of business at local produce stands.

"With locally grown tomatoes, we’ve had no complaints or reports of illness from anybody," said Adam Goodson, co-owner of Goodson Family Market, located in the Van Zandt Farmers Market in Canton.

He said customers have asked about the origin of the tomatoes he sells, but added, "They tend to trust tomatoes from local growers more than the ones from out of state."

Earlier this week, raw red Roma, red plum and round red tomatoes from Texas were cleared by the Food and Drug Administration from suspicion of a salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 160 people nationwide since mid-April.

Of those who contracted the illness, 23 were severe enough to be hospitalized. No deaths have been blamed on the illness yet, but one 67-year-old cancer patient from Texas died last week after becoming sick from salmonella poisoning.

The publicity of the outbreak has been enough to cause many national restaurant chains to pull all tomatoes from their usual offerings.

McDonald’s, Burger King and Taco Bell are among the restaurants that have voluntarily withdrawn tomatoes from their menus.

A sign posted on the sandwich line window at the Subway in Wills Point also informed customers that tomatoes would not be offered until further notice.

Caleb Smalling, an assistant manager at Sonic Drive-In in Canton, said that restaurant has followed suit.

"We did that last week," he said. "We really haven’t had any complaints about it."

Salmonella is a bacterium that lives in human and animal intestinal tracts. It is usually transmitted by the consumption of foods contaminated with animal feces, but the bacteria can also be transmitted during the handling and processing of raw foods.

Most people infected with salmonella poisoning suffer fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps for 12 to 72 hours after the infection. The illness usually lasts four to seven days.

Goodson said disease and illness outbreaks tend to have a temporary effect on sales of foods linked to the illness.

"Sometimes, people will just hear there has been a sickness outbreak and it’s linked to something like tomatoes, and they will cut that food out," he said.

"But it (sales) will usually rebound pretty quickly. It might stay down for a week," Goodson said.

Illness outbreaks also seem to spur interest in not only locally grown produce, but organic and all-natural foods as well, Goodson added.

"I do bring in some tomatoes from Florida sometimes, but I don’t sell California tomatoes because you can get those in any store, and I don’t sell Mexican tomatoes because their (agricultural and processing) standards are not as good," he said.

Lynn McQueen, co-owner of Sides Produce, located in the Van Zandt Farmers Market on State Highway 19 in Canton, agreed that customers felt safer buying tomatoes and other fresh produce grown locally.

"They have asked about our tomatoes in the last couple of weeks. The first question is, they want to know where they are from," she said.

"Once stuff starts coming into season on local farms, I try to buy only local produce," McQueen added.