Did food sellers overreact to tomato scare?

updated 9:14 p.m. ET June 10, 2008

ATLANTA - It’s the beginning of the summer, and it’s tough to find fresh salsa for our chips and tomatoes for our burgers.

But experts say supermarkets and fast food chains that threw out tomatoes suspected in a salmonella outbreak were acting aggressively to protect their customers’ health and avoid a consumer backlash.

And a federal government that’s been sluggish in the past is being more responsive, said consumer advocates. It hasn’t been pretty, however. It’s been a little like trying to cut a tomato with a dull knife.

Even though the government on Tuesday cleared fresh tomatoes grown in Florida and California of any responsibility in the outbreak, growers smell doom, predicting consumers will stay away from one of the joys of summer.

It’s an expensive proposition to toss seemingly edible food, experts said. But McDonald’s and others had good reason to pull the tomatoes, said Bill Marler, a Seattle attorney who for 15 years has specialized in food-contamination cases.

“The dilemma is if they don’t recall the tomatoes and someone gets sick, then they’re going to really look foolish,” he said.

The government was still trying to pinpoint the source of the dangerous bacteria Tuesday. The Food and Drug Administration was posting on its Web site states and countries that had safe tomatoes.

U.S. health officials said there were no confirmed salmonella deaths linked to the outbreak, which was reported in at least 17 states. Fewer than 200 people turned up sick.

But some contrasted this produce scare to earlier ones that produced more tepid reactions. In 2006, the last prominent outbreak of salmonella associated with tomatoes, at least 183 illnesses occurred in 21 states. That outbreak was blamed on tomatoes eaten in restaurants. But restaurants didn’t stop serving tomatoes back then.

Experts cited a range of possible explanations for the difference, including the FDA’s quick and specific action.

“This outbreak, the FDA is clearly making an effort to do better to inform consumers,” said Sarah Klein, attorney in the food-safety program for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group. “They have been fairly slow in the past.

But experts acknowledged the current situation is complicated, with companies making announcements at a time some might consider either too late or too early: Too late, in that the outbreak appears to be winding down, with no new illnesses occurring in two weeks. And too early, in that health investigators have not yet pinned down a particular food outlet, distributor or grower as a source of the contaminated tomatoes.

For their part, restaurant chains said they were simply being cautious.

“This action is being taken as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of our guests,” said Burger King Corp. spokeswoman Denise Wilson.

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