Miami Herald Editorial Posted on Wed, Jul. 02, 2008 FDA still searching for salmonella cause Nearly three months after the first case of salmonella poisoning was reported, the Food and Drug Administration is no closer to determining the source of the outbreak or, for that matter, knowing for sure if tomatoes are the real culprit. This is a dreadful position for the FDA -- which is primarily responsible for safeguarding our food -- to be in. There are good reasons that explain the FDA's predicament, to be sure. Nevertheless, the crisis has exposed a weakness in the agency's efforts to carry out its lofty goal of protecting the nation's food supply. No answers yet Meanwhile, with some tomatoes rotting on the vine, farmers, distributors and restaurants and grocery-store owners are suffering crippling losses. The outbreak has cost the food industry at least $100 million, according to the National Restaurant Association. The people who grow, process or market tomatoes, understandably, are angry. So, too, are consumers who, more than anything, just want to know if tomatoes are safe to eat. There are no easy answers, but here is a clue: Cherry and grape tomatoes and tomatoes with the vine still attached have not been linked to any outbreak, so they are safe to eat. Plum, Roma and Red Round tomatoes have been linked to the outbreak and hould not be eaten if they are grown or harvested in that handful of states linked to the outbreak. Go online to www.fda.gov to see the list. Although the FDA has tested more than 1,700 tomato samples from the affected areas, every result has been negative. Thus, the source of the outbreak remains a mystery. Moreover, the agency can't say for certain that tomatoes are the cause of the outbreak because the people who got sick ate tomatoes that were part of salsas, guacamole or other dishes. Determining the source is made more difficult because of the way tomatoes are harvested, packed, shipped and processed. Farmers send the fruit to processing facilities where tomatoes from different regions are collected. There, the tomatoes are sorted based on their size, ripeness and other factors -- but not their point of origin. The FDA, for the most part, relies on farmers, processors and others in the food chain to check the fruit. Resources needed Last year, the FDA asked Congress for more funding that would allow it to conduct more food inspections. Given the recent history of bacterial outbreaks -- not only in vegetable crops such as lettuce, tomatoes and spinach, but also meat from cattle and poultry, too -- Congress should give the request its blessing. Doing so wouldn't guarantee a completely safe food supply. It would go a long way, however, toward making sure that the FDA, and not just the people who grow and process our food, is conducting the inspections.