— Red peril? —
Salmonella threat
takes bite out sales
of summer’s favorite fruit
[photo illustration by Daniel Zollinger]

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — An outbreak of salmonella has caused three different types of tomatoes to be pulled off some, but not all, grocery stores shelves in Cibola and McKinley counties. The tomatoes that are affected are primarily the red Roma, the red round and red plum, according to the New Mexico Department of Health.

The situation has also caused concern among area and state health officials, one of whom said he does not know how long this situation could continue.

Dr. Michael Landen, deputy state epidemiologist with the New Mexico Department of Health, said there are more than 2,000 identified types of salmonella in the United States.

The current one, “salmonella St. Paul,” is linked to tomatoes and has never been identified in New Mexico previously, to his knowledge, he said.

Only two people have been diagnosed of the disease in the emergency room at Cibola General Hospital, said Janice Emerson, RN, BSN, infection control practitioner.

“One of those was a man in his 50s, from Cibola County, the other was a man in his 70s from Crownpoint,” she said.

In New Mexico, as of Thursday afternoon, 48 cases had been identified in 10 counties in New Mexico, Landen said. Those counties are: Cibola, McKinley, Bernalillo, Curry, Dona Ana, Otero, San Juan, Grant, Sandoval and Socorro.

Pulled from the shelves

In Grants, tomatoes were pulled from the shelves on Tuesday at both Smith’s and Wal-Mart, in response to corporate directives. At John Brooks, in Milan, tomatoes remain on the shelves, because no one has informed the store to pull them, said Michelle Salazar

Raymond Gallegos, produce manager at Albertson’s in Gallup, said he pulled tomatoes Tuesday as well.

“We still have tomatoes on the vine, grape and cherry tomatoes, which are safe,” he said.

Landen confirmed that saying those types of tomatoes are not ones that have been detected as having a problem.

“Preliminary data indicates the tomatoes we are having problems with are from Mexico,” he said.

There are a number of states beside New Mexico that are having salmonella outbreaks, he said, including: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin.

At BJ’s Market in Thoreau, the store carries only red slicing tomatoes and those are safe, said Truby Derbly, store manager.

A&J Produce in Gallup distributes produce to restaurants, cafes, small markets and school districts.

“The school summer lunch program is not using tomatoes, so people do not have to be worried about that,” said Andy Piano, of A&J.

He said the tomatoes he carries and distributes are only the red slicing tomatoes and those come from California, not Mexico.

Pine Hill Market unaware of outbreak

The Pine Hill Market had not heard of the salmonella outbreak and still had Roma and red round tomatoes on the shelves as of Thursday afternoon, said manager Burma Martine.

She said the store receives its produce from Affiliated Grocers and planned to contact the company following a telephone call from the Independent. She said she would determine whether she needed to pull any tomatoes after contacting Affiliated.

At Smith’s Grocery Store in Grants, produce manger Leonard Cook said the store pulled the potentially affected tomatoes Tuesday after receiving an e-mail from Smith’s corporate headquarters in Salt Lake City.

He said the store still has tomatoes on the vine, grape and cherry tomatoes available.

Mixed results

Ashley Williamson, a Grants resident, said she has eaten tomatoes all week and has not gotten sick. She could not remember what kind of tomatoes they were, however.

Johnny Maestas, of Grants, said he and his girlfriend ate uncooked tomatoes in a hamburger Tuesday.

The tomatoes were purchased from Wal-Mart and was in a six pack in plastic.

“I took them out of the package, rinsed them and sliced them and then put them on a hamburger,” he said.

“I got sick to my stomach yesterday (Wednesday) but I feel better today,” he said.

Maestas said he is not sure whether his stomach problem could have been caused by a slight case of salmonella, since the tomatoes were only rinsed slightly, not washed thoroughly or cooked.

Do not eat uncooked tomatoes

“Do not eat uncooked tomatoes for the next several weeks,” of the kind that have been identified as having caused salmonella, Landen said. “There are large vats that field workers use to wash tomatoes as they are picked in Mexico. If those vats have become contaminated, that could be where the problem is,” he said.

Workers move from region to region during the summer, however, and in a few weeks could well be picking tomatoes elsewhere and the problem could be solved simply by location, he said.

One thing that is puzzling the investigators is why the outbreaks are so scattered and not affecting other stores in the same area operated by the same franchise.

So far, according to the FDA Web site, there have been 57 reported cases of salmonella in New Mexico and Texas, including 17 hospitalizations.

Areas that have not been associated with the outbreak where tomatoes are grown include California, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Texas, Canada and Puerto Rico.

On the Net

www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html
www.cdc.gov.