McDonald's, Wal-Mart stop some tomato sales

By Lisa Baertlein

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp, Wal-Mart Stores Inc and other restaurant and grocery chains have stopped selling certain tomatoes as U.S. health officials work to pinpoint the source of a Salmonella outbreak.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Saturday warned U.S. consumers that the outbreak was linked to eating certain raw red plum, red Roma, and red round tomatoes, and products containing these tomatoes.

The agency, which first alerted consumers to the risk on June 3, has not yet identified the source of the contaminated tomatoes.

"That could be a matter of a few days, it could be longer than that," FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach said at a news conference at a testing facility in Irvine, California.

As of Saturday, the FDA said there had been 145 reported cases, including at least 23 hospitalizations, related to the outbreak since mid-April. The infections, which have struck most often in New Mexico and Texas, were caused by Salmonella Saintpaul, an uncommon type of the bacteria.

Salmonella bacteria are frequently responsible for food-borne illnesses. Symptoms generally appear within 12 to 72 hours after eating infected food and include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

Infants, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems are more likely than others to develop severe illness, which can be deadly unless treated with antibiotics.

The FDA has said that it is safe to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached, or tomatoes grown at home.

The agency has said it doesn't know where the tomatoes originated, but it named several states that it does not believe are connected to the outbreak, including California, which is the second largest tomato producing state, behind Florida.

The full list is available here#retailers.

Ed Beckman, president of the California Tomato Farmers, said that at the time of the outbreak Florida and Mexico were the biggest suppliers of tomatoes to the United States.

Neither Mexico, nor Florida was included in the FDA's list of states.

A spokesman for the Florida Tomato Committee, a marketing group that represents the industry, could not be reached immediately for comment.

Representatives for tomato producers in Mexico's largest tomato-growing state of Sinaloa could not be reached immediately for comment, nor could spokesmen for Mexico's agriculture ministry.

SAFETY FIRST