Tomato Salmonella Scare

There has been an outbreak of salmonella resulting from eating raw tomatoes. The source of the outbreak is still unknown, and the illness seems to come from raw red plum, red Roma, or round red tomatoes. Cooking your food at 145 degrees or more will kill the salmonella. Some additional information from the US Food and Drug Administration: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html.

M and I were over at my mother-in-law's place on Sunday afternoon. She was preparing dinner and cutting up some tomatoes to be included in a pasta salad. M told her about the salmonella outbreak in tomatoes, and she immediately had M's brother look it up online. Unfortunately, not a lot of information was yet available on the types of tomatoes affected, so she ended up taking out all the chopped up tomatoes already in the bowl, piece by piece. I guess better safe than sorry. I didn't think much of it, but this past Monday, McDonald's reported that they've stopped serving sliced tomatoes at their restaurants. For a big fast food chain to announce something like that, I'm a little more concerned now. The next time I order my veggie wrap for lunch, I'll need to get it sans tomatoes.

Here are some tips on taking extra care when eating fruits and vegetables: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080610/ap_on_re_us/salmonella_safety;_ylt=ArwOQP65qs17uXmD2e3dtaMazJV4.
Most of them just seem common sense to me, like washing your fruits thoroughly.