Posted: 6/11/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Matt Rourke, The Associated Press Shown are Canadian Hot House Tomatoes at a produce seller at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia on Tuesday. The Food and Drug Administration has released a list of farming locations, including Canada, California, and Hawaii, that it believes are safe from the salmonella outbreak. Also not associated with the outbreak are raw red Roma, red plum and round red tomatoes from Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Belgium, Canada, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, Netherlands and Puerto Rico.

With nearly 200 people from 17 different states sickened by an outbreak of Salmonella early this week, local Champaign restaurants and grocery stores are continuing to follow FDA nation-wide recommendations to pull many red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes from their shelves or menus. Texas and Nevada has linked illnesses to the consumption of raw tomatoes, however, the Illinois Department of Public Health will await more tests before confirmed that the salmonella outbreaks in the state are connected to the tomato crop and products.

"The Illinois Department of Public Health is still investigating the link between the outbreaks to tomatoes, but we are encouraging people to follow FDA warnings," said Melaney Arnold, spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Public Health.

According to Arnold, outbreaks in Illinois, most of which have been found in the northeastern part of the state, have turned up strains of salmonella saintpaul which match the national strains currently under scrutiny.

The Department of Public Health is working to inform the public and retailers about FDA warnings. Most local restaurants in Champaign-Urbana have temporarily discontinued the sale of tomato products.

"After we received the FDA warnings, all our restaurants pulled all our tomato products off the shelf," Potbelly Sandwich Works manager Brian Noparstak said. "Most of the students didn't initially know about the outbreaks, but they have been laid back and understanding about the change."

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