Pennsylvania's and New Jersey's field-grown tomatoes will start being harvested in two to four weeks and are unaffected by the outbreak, agriculture officials said. Greenhouse tomatoes are available now and are safe, they said.
Jersey-grown greenhouse tomatoes began making their way to market in mid-May, state Agriculture Secretary Charles M. Kuperus said yesterday.
That was "well after" the time frame in which the FDA has said the suspect tomatoes were bought and eaten, Kuperus said.
Greenhouse tomatoes are grown in controlled environments and "don't have contamination issues like field-grown tomatoes," said David Specca, director of the Rutgers EcoComplex in Bordentown, part of the state Agricultural Experiment Station System of Rutgers University.
But to those unaware of that, "any tomato will not be a good tomato - and that can kill the market," Specca said.
Groceries throughout the region have removed some tomato varieties from their produce sections. Acme Markets, with 130 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, has posted signs explaining the recall.
"The health and safety of our customers is Acme's number-one priority," said Taryn Duckett, a spokeswoman at company headquarters in Malvern. "We have voluntarily removed from sale all . . . tomatoes covered under the advisory until further notice."
Several types - including cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and tomatoes with the vine attached - remain available, Duckett said.
Growers hope that lack of complete information, and caution on the part of many restaurants, doesn't lead consumers to panic.
"When national chains like McDonald's aren't serving tomatoes, that doesn't help tomato sales," said Bill Troxell, executive secretary of the Pennsylvania Growers Association in Richfield, Pa.
Florida's tomato industry, the largest in the country, is on the verge of "complete collapse," a spokesman for the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange said yesterday.
