It's all George Clooney's fault.

I came to say almost exactly this

The widening outbreak - with 810 people confirmed ill - means whatever is making people sick could very well still be on the market, federal health officials warned on Friday.

Or it could be confirmation bias, and now you're finding that most people who get sick have had, along with other things, tomatoes.

I've avoided Taco Bueno because they haven't had fresh tomato products, which leaves the taco salad just a mess of lettuce with cheese and meat. Yeah, I'll take the risk of a little food poisoning. Hell, I'm probably safer eating tomatoes than anything that's been in my kitchen overnight.

You're doing a heckuva job there, Andy.

Good Luck FDA! I've been wiping my ass with fresh produce for months now. fark PETA!!

OK,

Am I the only one who thinks that the media has sensed the fervor for the tainted tomatoes has started to drop so now they need to rev up the panic (read ratings) machine?

/Of course the government is checking other ingredients. They probably have been since day 1.

just practicing the follow up headline: Hundreds of tomato farmers file suit due to loss of revenue....

One of the reasons the number is climbing still after all these weeks?

The test that confirms salmonella usually takes a few weeks at the lab.

Not even 1000 people in a country of over 300 million; I'll take my farking chances.

I blame M. Night Sham's The Happening.

I would like to put it in the Fark record that the salmonella outbreak, and other previous informal "stomach flu" (a.k.a. food poisoning/diarrhea/vomiting) outbreaks are due to cold breakfast cereals and not other culprits or bogeys.

I have nothing other than the previous precedent of the Malt-o-Meal cold cereal salmonella infestation, and scads of anecdotal evidence, both personal and online. The only common factor I can determine from an ingestion standpoint is cold breakfast cereals, mainly from General Mills, Post and Kellogg.

Can I substantiate my claim? Nope. It's just a strong, strong hunch. While correlation is not causation, I think there's more to this than, say, the Autism and immunization link. It's just that mass outbreaks of the hershey squirts aren't as glamorous to report.

Did anyone think to check the Special Sauce?

/maybe it's a little too special

Poop tainted tomatoes, flooded corn fields... Nature might have found a way to make Americans slimmer!

buzzvert: I would like to put it in the Fark record that the salmonella outbreak, and other previous informal "stomach flu" (a.k.a. food poisoning/diarrhea/vomiting) outbreaks are due to cold breakfast cereals and not other culprits or bogeys.

I have nothing other than the previous precedent of the Malt-o-Meal cold cereal salmonella infestation, and scads of anecdotal evidence, both personal and online. The only common factor I can determine from an ingestion standpoint is cold breakfast cereals, mainly from General Mills, Post and Kellogg.

Can I substantiate my claim? Nope. It's just a strong, strong hunch. While correlation is not causation, I think there's more to this than, say, the Autism and immunization link. It's just that mass outbreaks of the hershey squirts aren't as glamorous to report.

Seeing as that link is all but non-existent, I'd have picked another comparison to convince people...

/Preemptive reply for the loonies out there : No, I don't want/need to be corrected on this.

Apparently the tomato industry has a practice of mixing tomatoes from Mexico and U.S. before marketing them to us. This is making difficult to determine if the Salmonella came from Florida or Mexico. Salmonella outbreaks in Mexico are four times as much as U.S. (outbreaks that get reported anyways so you know the number is much, much higher). Know why? Because they water their produce with what they call "aguas negras" or black sewage water. We have inspectors in Mexico trying to insure that the produce that comes here meets our standards but there's no way they can oversee it all.

This is why I can't follow the news. It's like any other dumbass show, except you're the character who's life is constantly in danger. Like being in 24 except you get to eat. But not tomatoes, apparently, because they're carrying the terrorist virus or whatever this week.

/get your shiat correct, motherfarkers

Sounds like a lot of bullshiat.

Tainted tomatoes ... whoa - o- o,
Tainted Tomatoes ... sometimes I feel I got to run away.

Further investigation has revealed that every victim had also used toilet paper in the days proceeding their illness. We need a TP recall!

Teafortwo: Seeing as that link is all but non-existent, I'd have picked another comparison to convince people...

Ok, so I aimed low on the comparison (even though MILLIONS of people in this country are taken in by that mess). I would have used homeopathy, but that's even more popular and even more baseless...hmm...

Has anyone thought to check the Salmon?

It's getting to be the time of year when the media scares us about sharks. It usually happens by the second attack of the year.

Swizzle Dick: Good Luck FDA! I've been wiping my ass with fresh produce for months now. fark PETA!!

"I've been sticking 30 pounds of tomatoes up my ass everyday for the past 11 years! That's 3,000 tomatoes a day; 21,000 tomatoes a week; 1,092,000 tomatoes a year! To date that's 12,012,000 tomatoes, 8 times the population of Nebraska. Those tomatoes were in my ass! You think you're better than me? Oh, you're not better than me. You handle my ass tomatoes everyday!"

OMFG! Everybody stop eating until we can get this shiat figured out!

/I think I'll have BLT's for lunch

WELL DUH.

I work for a grocery store and we pulled all of ours the first day just to be safe. a week later we had them all back on the shelves. you know why? because the company I work for had enough sense to not only investigate every tomato farm we buy from, but also the warehouses, storage containers, and even the trucks they transport on! all clean. so when customers ask us about the tomatoes I just have to laugh and say "no, they are fine, unlike other grocery stores we had enough sense to investigate on our own instead of waiting for the FDA to come around...."

Wanted for questioning

IT'S THE GHOST BLIGHT ! ! !

buzzvert: Ok, so I aimed low on the comparison (even though MILLIONS of people in this country are taken in by that mess). I would have used homeopathy, but that's even more popular and even more baseless...hmm...

What's really important is that your example be truthy. It needs to play into some preexisting fear people have. That's why people believe in the autism-vaccination thing so strongly despite all the evidence to the contrary. Better to blame it on WiFi or iPhones or something.

Just to be specially irritating I shall state that I grow my own tomatoes, if anyone wants some, I do not put faeces on them and they are free.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning this week/last weekend, so I'm not getting a kick out of these replies. Symptoms may have been salmonella, but I'm not really sure. And I didn't eat any damn tomatoes.

I had the whole GI thing about 2 weeks ago. lasted about 36 hours.

I had a high fever for about 8 hours, I've never ran a fever that high my entire adult life. like 103. I've had stomach viruses, I have kids in day care, this was different.

I didn't have any tomatoes.

feds are just guessing, it's a shame because they ruin entire markets with their flawed guess work.

itdood: I had a high fever for about 8 hours, I've never ran a fever that high my entire adult life. like 103. I've had stomach viruses, I have kids in day care, this was different.

I didn't have any tomatoes.

I didn't have the fever (as far as I know), but otherwise similar. My stomach had these sharp pains in one area, combined with an overall queasiness. It didn't feel like any other stomach ache I've ever gotten.

Mnemia: What's really important is that your example be truthy. It needs to play into some preexisting fear people have. That's why people believe in the autism-vaccination thing so strongly despite all the evidence to the contrary. Better to blame it on WiFi or iPhones or something.

Actually... not a bad idea on the truthy front... in fact, maybe I'll start a chain letter:

------

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE FORWARD! THE CORPORATE MEDIA DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS!

An article published in the Journal of National Medicine has discovered a link between breakfast cereals and salmonella food poisoning and other "stomach flu" type diseases. These cold cereals are vitamin-fortified, and as such, create a breeding ground for "super-bacteria" which thrive on the nutrient and sugar rich environment cold cereals provide.

This basically means that MOST breakfast cereals are infected with bacteria, and if your immune system is weakened (by cigarette cmoking, young or old age, or other factors) you are PUTTING YOURSELF AT RISK by eating cold pre-packaged breakfast cereals! Don't let the corporate conspiracy control your life, and give you yet another case of the stomach "flu", which is actually food poisoning! PASS THIS ON, FIGHT THE SYSTEM.

-------

How's that?

Mnemia: buzzvert: Ok, so I aimed low on the comparison (even though MILLIONS of people in this country are taken in by that mess). I would have used homeopathy, but that's even more popular and even more baseless...hmm...

What's really important is that your example be truthy. It needs to play into some preexisting fear people have. That's why people believe in the autism-vaccination thing so strongly despite all the evidence to the contrary. Better to blame it on WiFi or iPhones or something.

YES! It's most likely the iPhones. If I were you, I'd stay as far from Apple stores on 7/11 as I could. Esp. the one in Jacksonville, FL. If you love your kids, spouse, significant other, your own sanity even, then just avoid the store.

/Stay away
//Far away
///Those iPhones are poison.

When we go out to eat I avoid salads and cole slaw/mayo stuff like the plague. I have no idea who has handled it, if they've washed it, how fresh it is, etc.

the only times I've ever gotten food poisoning was from sandwich shops where coming in contact with lettuce, tomatoes and what not is pretty tough to avoid.

buzzvert: Mnemia: What's really important is that your example be truthy. It needs to play into some preexisting fear people have. That's why people believe in the autism-vaccination thing so strongly despite all the evidence to the contrary. Better to blame it on WiFi or iPhones or something.

Actually... not a bad idea on the truthy front... in fact, maybe I'll start a chain letter:

------

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE FORWARD! THE CORPORATE MEDIA DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS!

An article published in the Journal of National Medicine has discovered a link between breakfast cereals and salmonella food poisoning and other "stomach flu" type diseases. These cold cereals are vitamin-fortified, and as such, create a breeding ground for "super-bacteria" which thrive on the nutrient and sugar rich environment cold cereals provide.

This basically means that MOST breakfast cereals are infected with bacteria, and if your immune system is weakened (by cigarette cmoking, young or old age, or other factors) you are PUTTING YOURSELF AT RISK by eating cold pre-packaged breakfast cereals! Don't let the corporate conspiracy control your life, and give you yet another case of the stomach "flu", which is actually food poisoning! PASS THIS ON, FIGHT THE SYSTEM.

-------

How's that?

Nah, you need some sort of organic is good, chemicals are bad angle too. And turn it down from 11 to, say, 8. Might as well use a real medical journal's name, too.

buzzvert: THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE FORWARD! THE CORPORATE MEDIA DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS!

An article published in the Journal of National Medicine has discovered a link between breakfast cereals and salmonella food poisoning and other "stomach flu" type diseases. These cold cereals are vitamin-fortified, and as such, create a breeding ground for "super-bacteria" which thrive on the nutrient and sugar rich environment cold cereals provide.

This basically means that MOST breakfast cereals are infected with bacteria, and if your immune system is weakened (by cigarette cmoking, young or old age, or other factors) you are PUTTING YOURSELF AT RISK by eating cold pre-packaged breakfast cereals! Don't let the corporate conspiracy control your life, and give you yet another case of the stomach "flu", which is actually food poisoning! PASS THIS ON, FIGHT THE SYSTEM.

Pretty good. I'd thrown in a Latin name for something, too. Adds gravitas.

I just watched the stand yesterday.....all the government denying that anything was wrong and then changing their story and blaming other things and all sorts of whatnot....

What if that is what's happening here!??!

/oh no, now they know I know!

I'm in the food industry, so blah blah blah.

The FDA are complete morans. They are the TSA of food safety. If it wasn't for the concern of growers, wholesalers and retailers, the entire food safety system would be a sham. And yes, the retailers are concerned and effectively monitor food temps. No one wants to be the store that caused food poisoning.

Ok, draft 2:


THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE FORWARD! THE CORPORATE MEDIA DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS!

An article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has discovered a link between breakfast cereals and salmonella (Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhi) food poisoning and other "stomach flu" type diseases. These cold cereals are vitamin-fortified, and as such, create a breeding ground for "super-bacteria" which thrive on the nutrient and sugar rich environment cold cereals provide. The article was specific to mention that this breeding ground was not present in organic, non-fortified breakfast cereals.

This basically means that most "mass-market" breakfast cereals are infected with bacteria, and if your immune system is weakened (by cigarette smoking, young or old age, or other factors) you are risking serious food poisoning by eating cold pre-packaged breakfast cereals. This has not garnered national media attention, due to heavy linkages between corporate cereal companies, the corn lobby, and major media outlets. Don't let the corporate conspiracy control your life, and give you yet another case of the stomach "flu", which is actually food poisoning! PASS THIS ON, FIGHT THE SYSTEM.

buzzvert:
Don't let the corporate conspiracy control your life, and give you yet another case of the stomach "flu", which is actually food poisoning! PASS THIS ON, FIGHT THE SYSTEM.

-------

How's that?

The conservative, middle-aged secretaries who fwd these things endlessly don't want to "fight the system". Use another hook.

God, I could have told all of you this. I will never forgive the government for the ban on tomatoes. I didn't think it was bad until I went to Sonic to get a breaded chicken sandwich, and there was no tomato!! What is that?!

No Such Agency: The conservative, middle-aged secretaries who fwd these things endlessly don't want to "fight the system". Use another hook.

oooo. good point. Draft 3:


THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! PLEASE FORWARD! THE CORPORATE MEDIA DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS!

An article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has discovered a link between breakfast cereals and salmonella (Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhi) food poisoning and other "stomach flu" type diseases. These cold cereals are vitamin-fortified, and as such, create a breeding ground for "super-bacteria" which thrive on the nutrient and sugar rich environment cold cereals provide. The article was specific to mention that this breeding ground was not present in organic, non-fortified breakfast cereals.

This basically means that most "mass-market" breakfast cereals are infected with bacteria, and if your immune system is weakened (by cigarette smoking, young or old age, or other factors) you are risking serious food poisoning by eating cold pre-packaged breakfast cereals. This has not garnered national media attention, due to heavy linkages between corporate cereal companies, the corn lobby, and major media outlets. Don't let this corporate conspiracy put you, your loved ones, or babies at risk with yet another case of the stomach "flu", which is actually food poisoning! Pass this on to the people you care about.

gtomako: Apparently the tomato industry has a practice of mixing tomatoes from Mexico and U.S. before marketing them to us. This is making difficult to determine if the Salmonella came from Florida or Mexico. Salmonella outbreaks in Mexico are four times as much as U.S. (outbreaks that get reported anyways so you know the number is much, much higher). Know why? Because they water their produce with what they call "aguas negras" or black sewage water. We have inspectors in Mexico trying to insure that the produce that comes here meets our standards but there's no way they can oversee it all.

The problem is this paticular strain of salmonella has never been identified in Mexico.
My father in law works for the water utility in Mexico, and I can say that the aguas negras get treated into grey water and are used to water golf courses and the like, just like in the states. They do not go to farms. I've spent a lot of time in Sinaloa, the tomato capital, and the fields are not irrigated with sewer water. While it might happen somewere, it in not universal or even common. The people here would riot if that was true!
Mexico is not as bad as most people think. It is an easy scapegoat, though, due to past perceptions.
I've been in Mexico for years and eat raw tomatoes daily, as well as other fruits and veggies and can count the stomach bugs that I've had on one hand.

Just FYI, whatever raw sewage is called in Mexico, it's probably not actually black. I spent a fair amount of my childhood around raw sewage (due to my father's workplace) and raw sewage is actually clear.

Just imagine how bad the story would have been, if the primary election hadn't been so close at the beginning of this story.

aureliawestlake: I spent a fair amount of my childhood around raw sewage (due to my father's workplace)

Your father was a politician?

Teafortwo: Poop tainted tomatoes, flooded corn fields... Nature might have found a way to make Americans slimmer!

You don't get the salmoneller from poop. That's e.coli.

Has anyone thought to check the Salmon?

That's an excellent point. I remember the troutmanilla outbreak of '05. It took months before they realized that it came from the trout.

prekrasno: It's all George Clooney's fault.

Who cares about George Clooney..I want to know what happened to Karen Mistal!