Reacting to Contaminated Foods

by Aimee Amodio | More from this Blogger

10 Jun 2008 07:39 PM

I read the headlines -- but not the stories -- before I went to grocery shopping this afternoon. An outbreak of salmonella, related to tomatoes grown in Florida and Mexico. That was all I knew.

As I wandered the aisles at Costco -- and especially as I reached the fruits and veggies -- I started to see signs. Things like, "our tomatoes are safe" and variations thereof. I was pretty impressed with their quick response. Once I checked out and walked past the concession area, I saw another sign: "wraps made without tomatoes". Maybe the tomatoes they use in their wraps are of questionable origin? Either way, I was again impressed with the speed and care of the Costco response.

Other retailers have taken tomatoes off the menu for the time being, including McDonald's, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wal-Mart, Kroeger, Winn-Dixie, and more.

On the drive home, I was thinking about other incidents of contaminated foods. Contaminated spinach in 2006 came to mind first, followed by fears of mad cow disease before that. The spinach problem was caused by E. coli -- a bacteria that can cause severe diarrhea and abdominal cramping.

Then I got to thinking about my reaction to all these contaminated food incidents. When it comes to contaminated veggies, you can protect yourself from lots of different contaminants by doing two things:

1. Wash your vegetables under running water. (Soap might not hurt, either!)
2. Cook your vegetables before eating.

In some cases, washing and cooking won't kill all the bacteria, but it may reduce bacteria to safer levels.

I don't think I'm going to stop eating tomatoes, that's for sure. But I will be mindful of the FDA list of safe tomatoes -- and I'll keep an eye on the list until we get an all-clear.

If you think you've eaten contaminated tomatoes, you'll want to know the signs of salmonellosis (salmonella poisoning).

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Aimee is a fiction writer... dog lover... music lover...

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