News

Notice anything missing from your burger?

By Dollie Gull

CATSKILL — If you order a deluxe burger at a fast food restaurant in Catskill, you’re likely not to get any tomato. A recent tomato scare has restaurants nationwide taking a second and third look at their tomatoes — fresh and canned.

Tomatoes at certain Catskill restaurants were recalled Saturday and by Sunday, area Subways were no longer adding fresh tomato slices to their sandwiches due to the recall.

A shift manager at local fast food restaurant said Sunday that he understood they could no longer serve tomatoes on their burgers “because of a salmonella problem.”

Cale Hendrickson, working at the local Subway in Wal-Mart, reported that he and other Subway workers had been ordered to remove their tomatoes because of the salmonella outbreak, despite no reports of illness in New York state.

However, 17 people nationwide have been hospitalized and 70 reported sick from the salmonella strain “Saint Paul,” according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The taint is said to be found in raw Roma and “salad type” tomatoes.

The problem over the tomatoes highlights the uncertainties related to today’s mass food production where gigantic farms, specializing in only a few products each season, have edged out local, smaller farms. It is from the larger farms that most problems have come, including the outbreaks of illness due to tainted spinach just last year, according to the FDA.

The problem also points out how the local farmers probably are less likely to produce any crops that have salmonella, or other taints, associated with their produce.

Local farmers’ markets will begin kicking into high gear with the June 14 New Baltimore Farmers’ Market slated for Wyche Park on New Baltimore Road as it begins the summer season on the second Saturday in June, from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Subsequent farmers’ markets are scheduled there on future Saturdays — the 21st and the 28th — also from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Catskill Farmers’ Market will begin in July, with area farmers bringing in locally-grown produce for sale.

FDA officials are still looking into the where and why of the latest tomato recall, and are still searching for the source of the tainted tomatoes.

This most recent tomato scare began in late April in Texas and New Mexico, then spread to Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Utah and Arizona with at least 17 people hospitalized thus far with the “Saint Paul” strain of salmonella as the result of eating raw tomatoes. In addition, the QVC Channel — a home shopping channel — recalled the tomato planters it’s been selling with the warning that they are liable to “collapse.”

Tomato-eaters are being cautioned to thoroughly wash all tomatoes under running water; refrigerate them within two hours; discard cut, peeled or cooked tomatoes; and keep tomatoes that will be consumed raw separate from raw meats, seafood and produce. Health officials also urge that cutting boards, dishes, utensils and other counter tops be washed with hot water and soap when switching between different types of food.

Reader Comments

Submit a Comment