When you hear the word salmonella, your (like most peoples) mind probably immediately thinks of eggs or bad meat. One thing you probably aren’t thinking of is tomatoes. It might be time to reconsider those assumptions.
A recent study shows that salmonella poisoning is on the rise in restaurants and the reason for it is nothing short of a shock. The study found that due there is an increased risk for salmonella from the mishandling of none other than the heart-healthy food, tomatoes.
If you’re anything like me, you’re probably asking yourself – “how can tomatoes be dangerous? They’re tomatoes!” but think again. Out of 449 surveyed restaurants, up to 50% were mishandling their tomatoes in an unsafe way.
What dangerous observations were made, and why do those matter?
The first and most notable danger of the way our beloved red fruit was the astounding 49% of tomatoes that were not cut using a produce-only cutting board. What does that mean? It means that approximately 220 of the restaurants that were under inspection used the same cutting board for their meat as they did for their produce. I bet you weren’t picturing juicy pink chicken when you were biting into that salad.
Perhaps a more relatable fact; 36% of workers did not wear gloves while handling tomatoes prior to serving. That may not seem too bad, but when considering a recent study by MSU shows that only 5% of the population is washing their hands correctly, it is reasonable to assume that it’s more filth ridden than you might think.
The third most notable observation of the study was that of chopped tomatoes, 73% of them were held too long above the recommended temperature (out of the refrigerator) prior to serving them. The FDA regulates that chopped tomatoes are at increased risk of salmonella after 4 hours of time in a temperature 42 degrees F or higher.
What can you do about this danger?
Unfortunately, when you go out to a restaurant you really never know how the food you’re eating has been prepared. You can always ask and spread awareness of these issues if you don’t mind the slight annoying stigma that comes from being “that customer” but perhaps the most important thing you can do about this atrocity is spread the news. Let everyone you know in on the salmonella secret and hope that those who own or work in restaurants will take notice and change.
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