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Grocery shoppers and fast-food customers may be finding it more difficult to find fresh tomatoes.

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Fresh Market, based in Greensboro, and other stores on Monday pulled from shelves red round, red plum and red Roma tomatoes grown in states identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as homes to the recent salmonellosis outbreak.

A litany of fast-food and other chains — including McDonald's, Taco Bell, Wal-Mart and Outback Steakhouse — also announced this week that they would stop serving raw red tomatoes.

They acted in response to the FDA linking certain types of tomatoes to the outbreak.

Jennifer Foushee, a spokeswoman for Fresh Market, said the Greensboro location was mostly spared because the company's emphasis is on locally grown produce. North Carolina is among about 25 locales crossed off the FDA's list of potential sources for the outbreak.

But others of Fresh Market's 78 locations had no choice but to pull tomatoes off shelves.

"They try to keep it local," Foushee said. "But they've thrown them out if there's a problem to comply with the FDA announcement."

Others, such as Harris Teeter stores nationwide, couldn't avoid pulling tomatoes grown in other areas.

Harris Teeter spokeswoman Jennifer Panetta said the stores pulled all suspect tomatoes from shelves Monday and intend to restock today with produce from South Carolina and Georgia.

The FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention link raw red tomatoes to a recent outbreak of illnesses caused by the Salmonella serotype Saintpaul bacteria.

Since mid-April, at least 23 hospitalizations and almost 170 illnesses caused by the usually rare strand of bacteria have been reported nationwide.

North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia are all on an FDA list, updated Tuesday, of states and countries whose tomatoes are not associated with the outbreak. With the exception of two reported cases in Virginia, the illness has not affected the South.

But though no one in North Carolina has been infected, some locals say it's better to be safe than sorry.

"We're not serving fresh tomatoes on anything," said Judy Eaton, manager at Greensboro's Village Tavern.

The store's fresh tomatoes come from South Carolina and some types of tomatoes are not linked to the salmonella bacteria.

But Eaton said the restaurant wouldn't offer items such as guacamole and would serve sandwiches without tomatoes until the scare passes.

"Even though they didn't recall grape tomatoes, we're not serving those," she said.

Menu items such as pizza are safe for now because cooked sauces and ketchup are not on the FDA's suspect list.

Other stores, such as Greensboro's Sweet Basils and Green Valley Grill restaurants, will rely on locally grown tomatoes and careful preparation of produce to ward off disease.

Lynne Leonard, coordinator of Greensboro's Farmers Curb Market, said that many local restaurants buy locally grown produce but that consumers still should be cautious.

She said the market offers tomatoes grown in local greenhouses almost year-round, but consumers still should ask where produce was grown before eating or buying it.

"They should know what they're getting, particularly if it's going in their body," Leonard said.


Contact Emily Stephenson at 373-7080 or emily.stephenson@news-record.com