Andrew C. von Eschenbach, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, is responding to July21 editorial "Killer tomatoes? Or ... / Illness, dumped produce reveal a problem."
The Bee incorrectly states in its editorial that the Food and Drug Administration "reconsidered its warning" to avoid several types of tomatoes during the food borne illness emergency involving Salmonella Saintpaul. We did not reconsider. We explicitly lifted the warning, based upon evidence uncovered during our ongoing investigation.
The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, both part of Health and Human Services, have collaborated with state, local and international partners in a weeks-long investigation into the nation's largest outbreak of salmonella infections.
State-of-the-art methods of investigation revealed a strong association between eating raw tomatoes and illnesses reported early in this outbreak.
Based on that information and using the same process employed during emergencies involving spinach in 2006 and peanut butter in 2007, the FDA made recommendations necessary to protect public health.
A food-borne illness investigation is a lot like a detective trying to solve a case. We often must rely on people's memory about what they ate last week,or the week before that, or the week before that. We compare information from those who got sick with information from people who didn't. This process often produces suspects, or leads.In this case, eating raw tomatoes was strongly associated with cases of illness.
The FDA and CDC recently broadened the investigation and warnings to new leads. A nationwide study found that ill people were likely to have eaten raw jalapeño and serrano peppers in addition to raw tomatoes.
Data from all investigations indicate that raw jalapeño peppers from Mexico are likely to be a major cause of the disease outbreak. Raw serrano peppers and raw tomatoes remain under investigation.
On July 17,the FDA lifted its warning on raw tomatoes, saying that the tomatoes now available in the domestic market were not grown in areas associated with the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak. The tomatoes available today are from different sources than those available at the beginning of the outbreak, and the science supports the change in our warning.
At every point of this investigation, the FDA has followed the science, weighed the risk to public health, issued - and lifted - warnings based on solid, scientific evidence to promote and protect the public health.
