Tomato growers in Florida, California and Mexico are having trouble selling their crops as U.S. regulators hunt for the source of a salmonella outbreak linked to certain tomato varieties.
The FDA warned U.S. consumers on Saturday that the outbreak was linked to eating certain raw red plum, red Roma, and red round tomatoes, and products containing those tomatoes.
The FDA has said it does not know where the contaminated tomatoes originated but the infections have mostly occurred in New Mexico and Texas.
As consumers struggle with salmonella contaminated tomatoes will organic food sellers scuh as Whole Foodslose their appeal?
I’m not concerned about the organic trend, says Pete Najarian. But Costco and Wal-Mart are both expanding into the organic space and that’s not good for Whole Foods. In fact, the options trading suggests to me that Whole Foods could soon go lower, Najarian adds.
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In case you’re wondering, symptoms of salmonella poisoning generally appear within 12 to 72 hours after eating infected food and include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.
As of Tuesday, 167 people have reported eating contaminated tomatoes with 23 of them ending up in the hospital.
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