By Jonathan D. Rockoff , Sun reporter|July 18, 2008
WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON - After warning Americans for six weeks against eating certain kinds of tomatoes, federal health officials gave the all-clear yesterday - without ever finding solid evidence that tomatoes were the cause of the largest outbreak of food-borne illness in at least a decade.
In lifting the salmonella warning, the Food and Drug Administration met the demands of the tomato industry, which had been requesting the action.
But the move is unlikely to stop tomato growers, packers and sellers from pushing for $100 million or more in federal aid to reimburse them for losses.
Health officials trying to track the cause of the illness are now concentrating on jalapeno peppers and serrano peppers.
Investigators are currently in Mexico to examine a pepper-packing plant.
"Tomatoes on the market currently are safe to consume," Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for foods, said in a conference call with reporters.
Despite the developments, health officials refused yesterday to absolve tomatoes.
Interviews with early victims pointed to certain tomatoes as likely suspects. Investigators are pursuing the theory that the outbreak started with tainted tomatoes, which then contaminated peppers.
More than 1,200 people have fallen ill from the Salmonella saintpaul strain, including 36 in Maryland. Though the number of people infected has continued to rise, there are signs that the outbreak is slowing down.
"It does appear to have decreased in intensity beginning in mid-June," said Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division of food-borne diseases. The rate that people are reporting infections dropped to 19 a day in mid-June from a peak of 33 people a day just weeks earlier.
But the progress wasn't enough to curb criticism of the government's food safety system.
"It is absolutely outrageous that we are 90 days into the salmonella outbreak and the FDA and CDC still cannot determine the source of contamination," Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat who has proposed reforms, said in a statement.
The FDA first warned consumers to avoid eating certain raw tomatoes on June 7, after interviews with early victims pointed to fresh red round, red plum or red Roma tomatoes.
