Manatee tomato growers are telling people what mothers have been saying for years: Eat your tomatoes.

The plea for consumers to begin buying tomatoes again has been muffled by escalating reports of illness caused by a salmonella outbreak in 23 states.

"People are hesitant to eat tomatoes," said Bob Spencer of West Coast Tomato. "The only thing we can hope is that they somehow get the word out that they're safe to eat."

Area growers were given the go-ahead to ship and sell tomatoes Tuesday after it was determined that their produce had not been on the market during the time of the outbreak.

But growers continue to face retailers and consumers leery of buying the produce.

Another hurdle came this week when a single case of salmonella was reported in Florida, which joined five other states with new cases: Georgia, Missouri, New York, Tennessee and Vermont.

Florida's lone case was someone who had been traveling during the time of being exposed to the salmonella-tainted tomato, said Liz Compton, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture.

"When a person gets sick, they assign their case to the home state regardless of where they got sick," she said.

While 19 counties in Florida, including Manatee, have been cleared of being the cause of the outbreak, the FDA has not ruled out other counties that had tomatoes on the market during the outbreak from mid-April to late May, she said.

It's likely that number of cases from the latest count of 228 will increase before the investigation is over. It can take 24 hours to nearly seven days before people begin to show symptoms of illness. Another few weeks can pass before it shows up on the FDA's radar, she said.

"Some of these cases that are coming up now could very well be from eating the tomatoes weeks ago," Compton said. "We are anxiously awaiting for FDA's hopefully expedited investigation."

The FDA warns consumers not to eat red Romas, raw red plums and raw red round tomatoes unless the fruit came from states on the FDA's safe-to-eat list.

Also safe to eat are grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and tomatoes on a vine that came from any source.

A rare form of salmonella - salmonella saintpaul - is a bacteria that can cause diarrhea, stomach cramps, fever and even death.

Last year, only about three people in the United States were infected with this specific strain of salmonella, according to Centers for Disease Control.

As the FDA investigation wanes on, growers face threats of monetary loss and possibly financial ruin, said Tony DiMare of DiMare Farms.

"Until the FDA comes out and releases their findings and can define where the origin came from, we're all going to suffer," he said.

Taking into account the time frame of the illnesses and the concentration of cases in the western states, DiMare believes that the blame for the outbreak likely falls on Mexico.

The outbreak has cost the Florida industry an estimated $500 million in economic impact.

"You may have some people go broke over this one," DiMare said. "This thing is serious."

Jessica Klipa, Herald reporter, can be reached at 708-7906.