Trying to pick a safe tomato? In the wake of the big recall, you’d be wise to do what the folks at Marczyk Fine Foods are doing: Pay attention to guidelines issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“We put out signs that basically cut and paste what the FDA put out,” said Mario Scordato, head chef and manager of the independent grocer in Denver’s Uptown neighborhood.
Red cherry, grape, heirloom and round tomatoes with the vine still attached are considered safe, as are red round and roma tomatoes harvested in Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Belgium, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, the Netherlands and Puerto Rico.
Scordato suspects that the salmonella contamination is related to harvest and shipping practices.
“A lot of the red round and roma tomatoes are picked pretty prematurely and allowed to ripen in the boxes,” he said. “That kind of incubation time may be part of the problem.”
Consumers worried about making safe choices should scrutinize labels — the stickers affixed to vegetables typically include the state from which the produce originated. Check the tomatoes in your fridge, too. If they’re red round or roma and you can’t figure out where they’re from, toss them in a spaghetti sauce or into the trash.
If you’re buying something from a deli case that contains raw tomatoes, ask the staff what type was used and where they came from. If they can’t answer, take a pass and get something made with cooked tomatoes, which are considered safe.
In the long term, your best bet is to pay attention to the news and handle your produce as safely as you can. Because the next bacterial outbreak could be on a different kind of tomato — or a different kind of produce — altogether.
