Are Your Tomatoes Making You Sick?

Have you heard of incidents like this? Salmonella in tomatoes

9/9/25 https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2025/09/another-50-sick-in-seasonal-salmonella-tomato-outbreak/

Why Cherry Tomatoes Can Be Risky

• Their smooth but delicate skin can trap bacteria in microscopic crevices.

• They’re often eaten raw, so there’s no cooking step to kill bacteria.

• Cherry tomatoes are commonly sold in clusters, so if one is contaminated, others in the package can be too.

Salmonella in cherry tomatoes (and other fresh produce) doesn’t come from the tomato itself, but from how the plant or fruit is exposed to contamination. Here’s how it can happen:

How Salmonella Gets on Cherry Tomatoes

Contaminated Water

If irrigation water, rain splash, or wash water contains salmonella (from animal or human waste), it can stick to the tomato’s skin. Because cherry tomatoes are small and often clustered close to the ground, they’re more likely to be splashed.

Soil & Manure

Salmonella can live in soil if raw or improperly composted manure is used as fertilizer. Animals (like birds, rodents, or reptiles) can also deposit salmonella in soil where tomatoes are growing.

Handling After Harvest

Picking, packing, and transporting tomatoes with unwashed or contaminated hands, tools, or surfaces can spread salmonella. Once the bacteria is on the skin, it can sometimes migrate into tiny cracks or stem scars.

Cross-Contamination in the Kitchen

Cutting tomatoes with a knife or using a cutting board that touched raw meat or poultry can transfer salmonella.

Prevention Tips

• Wash tomatoes under running water (don’t use soap).

• Dry them with a clean towel or paper towel.

• Store separately from raw meats.

• Use clean knives and cutting boards.

• If you grow your own, use safe water and well-composted fertilizer.

Let’s go deeper into what happens after you eat a contaminated cherry tomato with salmonella on it.

How Salmonella Infects You

Ingestion - You eat the tomato raw. If salmonella is on the skin or has entered through tiny cracks, it travels into your digestive tract.

Surviving Stomach Acid - Normally, stomach acid kills many bacteria, but salmonella can withstand acidic conditions, especially if eaten with other foods that buffer stomach acid.

Attaching in the Intestines - Once in the small intestine, salmonella uses special surface proteins to attach to the intestinal lining. It then invades the intestinal cells by tricking them into pulling the bacteria inside.

Multiplying & Causing Inflammation - Inside the gut cells, salmonella multiplies. The immune system detects the invasion, leading to inflammation. This inflammation causes the classic symptoms: diarrhea, abdominal cramps, fever, and sometimes vomiting.

Shedding & Spread - The bacteria are shed in stool, which is why salmonella spreads so easily if handwashing isn’t thorough.

Why Some People Get Sicker Than Others

• Healthy adults often recover in about a week.

• Children, older adults, and people with weakened immune systems can get more severe illness, sometimes with bacteria entering the bloodstream (salmonella septicemia), which is life-threatening without treatment.

✅ Key point: Salmonella doesn’t make the tomato look, smell, or taste bad—so you can’t tell it’s contaminated. That’s why safe handling and washing are so important.

🔑 Takeaway:

Washing is excellent for reducing risk, since surface contamination is far more common. But damaged, cracked, or overripe cherry tomatoes should be avoided for raw eating, since those are more likely to allow internal contamination.

Why You Shouldn’t Eat Split Tomatoes https://youtu.be/lrRKPbAALVk?si=1DAStOjUmJhnuFEw

Here’s a practical checklist you can follow at home to keep cherry tomatoes safe and lower the risk of salmonella:

🍅 Cherry Tomato Safety Checklist

🛒 At the Store (or Farmers Market)

• Inspect before buying: Avoid tomatoes with cracks, splits, bruises, or mold.

• Check packaging: If sold in clamshells, look for moisture or leaking juice (a sign of damage or bacterial growth).

• Separate in cart: Keep tomatoes and other fresh produce away from raw meat, poultry, and seafood.

🏠 At Home

• Wash hands first

• Always scrub hands with soap and water for 20 seconds before handling produce.

• Rinse under running water

• Use cool, clean water (no soap or bleach).

• Gently rub each tomato with your fingers to remove dirt and bacteria.

• A colander works well for rinsing cherry tomatoes in batches.

• Dry thoroughly

• Use a clean paper towel or kitchen towel. Drying physically removes more bacteria than rinsing alone.

• Cut carefully

• Use a clean knife and cutting board.

• If you’ve handled raw meat, wash cutting boards, knives, and counters before using them for tomatoes.

Storage

• Store cherry tomatoes at room temperature if they’re whole and uncut (refrigeration can reduce flavor but is fine if you need longer storage).

• Once cut, refrigerate immediately in a clean, sealed container. Eat within 2 days.

🚫 What to Avoid

• Don’t wash tomatoes in a sink full of water (standing water can spread contamination).

• Don’t eat damaged, split, or moldy tomatoes raw. Cook them instead.

• Don’t reuse cloth towels that have touched raw meat/seafood to dry tomatoes.

🔒 Extra Protection

• If you have higher risk factors (young children, older adults, or weakened immunity in your household), consider cooking cherry tomatoes in sauces, soups, or roasts rather than eating raw. Heat destroys salmonella.

“Are My Tomatoes Still Good To Eat?” https://youtu.be/akN4DCAPi8I?si=5l5DLJ8JkMtDhBfl

👉 For more about tomatoes and peppers, see my playlist here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdvtj3XHt5pOfoEp8M6vjm4P55YJihMhW&si=GU3RPd1eCwjQl5LR