Salmonella scare impacts tomato crop

MERCED, Calif., July 10 (UPI) -- Demand for fresh tomatoes has slowed in recent weeks, following a salmonella outbreak linked to fresh produce that made thousands sick, producers said.

In early June, the Food and Drug Administration said certain tomatoes were the likely cause of the outbreak in which 1,017 people became ill, USA Today reported.

The FDA has since extended the investigation into the cause of the outbreak to jalapeno and serrano peppers, as well as cilantro, but has not taken raw round Roma, red round and red plum tomatoes off the list of suspects.

"We do not have ... evidence that takes tomatoes off the list," the Center for Disease Controls deputy director Robert Tauxeon told reporters Wednesday.

Producers say demand for tomatoes is down 30 percent to 40 percent and farmers have reported plowing under fields of ripe tomatoes as prices have fallen too far to support a harvest

"We're losing hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Tim Horwath, president of Gonzales Packing in Gonzales, Calif.

Horwath has mowed down 40 acres of tomatoes, the report said.

Tim McCarthy, Chief Executive Officer of the Central California Tomato Growers Cooperative in Merced, Calif., plowed under 60 acres of his own crop when the price was $4 a box, the report said.

With prices now $5 a box, "It's break-even," he said.