Is eating raw tomatoes safe?

The fresh tomatoes on your salad may soon be much safer to eat. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will expand its Tomato Safety Initiative from Virginia, where it was launched this summer, to Florida in the fall.

The program intends to find ways to reduce outbreaks of food-borne illnesses related to fresh and fresh-cut tomatoes in the United States.

Since 1998, there have been twelve outbreaks of food-borne illnesses linked to the consumption of fresh and fresh-cut tomatoes, and these resulted in 1,840 confirmed cases of illness. Most of the tomatoes involved in the outbreaks came from the growing areas of Virginia’s eastern shore and Florida, although some were also traced to South Carolina, Georgia, California, and Ohio.

In 2006 alone, more than 183 people were sickened by Salmonella in fresh tomatoes served to them in restaurants. There were no fatalities but 22 people were hospitalized. A similar tomato-related Salmonella outbreak in 2004 affected over 400 people.

The initiative puts FDA efforts together with those of State health and agriculture departments in Virginia and Florida, several universities, and representatives from the produce industry. Special teams consisting of FDA investigators and the other collaborators in the effort will visit tomato farms and packing plants in both states to assess their food safety practices and their use of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs).

The teams have already visited over 50 tomato farms and 3 packing facilities in Virginia. The data will now be analyzed to look for patterns that may indicate the best approaches for regulatory intervention. The teams also take a look at farm conditions such as water and animal proximity to growing areas; they assess irrigation water, wells, procedures and equipment for mixing chemicals, the effects of drought and flooding.

Animals could include the whole range from reptiles, insects, and birds to mammals. Farm animals like cattle, and even animals in the wild, can deposit their feces on growing fields; the animals could also get into direct contact with the produce. Animal waste could contaminate water supplies, and the contaminated water could be used in the fields.

The safety initiative also includes: continuous contact with the produce industry at all critical points in the supply chain; early and frequent communications throughout the industry when an outbreak occurs; more research on tomato safety measures; and, continuous efforts to build and strengthen collaborative relationships among federal, state, and local public health officials in disease prevention, detection, and outbreak response.