Tomato Scare In NYC Climbs To 7 Cases, Smells Way Overblown!

Photo/AP

Seven. That is the number of suspected cases in New York City linked to possible salmonella contaminated tomatoes.

Seventy Six Million. That is the number of food-borne illnesses reported nationwide in a typical year in the United States.

If you turned your television to a local tv station last night, you may have thought we were experiencing the second coming of the bubonic plague. Every fifteen minutes or so a local news teaser would come on sensationalizing this "outbreak". I highly doubt that 20 or 30 years ago such a benign "outbreak" would even make the news at all.

Consider that every day in America over 200,000 people are stricken with a food-borne illness. Consider that any salmonella that is on a tomato is on it, not in it. Therefore proper preparation- thorough washing, would probably take care of the problem.

Yet, in this day and age, of media sensationalism, millions and millions of dollars of tomatoes are being disposed of for little reason. Makes you wonder and kinda long for the old days.
Six More Cases Of Salmonella In NYC (WABC)