Tomatoes, The Latest Wave of Fear

Wed, Jun 11, 2:25 AM

The local paper is carrying an AP article about the recent tomato salmonella scare, and I can't help think that this is yet another alarming mountain being constructed of a molehill, some smoke, and a whole lot of mirrors.

Restaurants are not trashing tomatoes "to protect their customers' health" or "for the safety of [their] guests." They're taking these measures because tossing their entire existing inventory of tomatoes, and even throwing incoming pre-ordered cases straight into the dumpster as they arrive on the truck, is far cheaper than having to defend against a single lawsuit if someone were to fall ill.

And who can blame them? Given the choice of scrapping $1M worth of perfectly good tomatoes, or paying out $10M in a lawsuit to some idiot who decided that an upset stomach was akin to winning the lottery, I'd make the same decision. But I'd at least be honest about it.

If I were an executive at McDonald's or Burger King or Subway - or especially Wendy's, who faced the bogus "finger in the chili" lawsuit several years ago - I'd be all over the airwaves making it perfectly clear why you can't have a tomato on your burger this month... It's not because it isn't safe. It's because we're too likely to get sued by someone who catches a stomach virus, happened to eat at our restaurant last week, and wants a big payday.

Each day, millions of Americans eat tomatoes and suffer no ill effect, and that's true even now. This mystery salmonella outbreak has caused fewer than 200 reported illnesses, and has killed no one. Yet the message being spread through the media like wildfire is "don't eat tomatoes or you're going to die!"

Typical. The media needs you scared, it's how they sell their product (you) to their advertisers. And no amount of money could purchase the free and supposedly positive publicity that the various fast-food conglomerates have received in the past few days; I suppose there are some CFOs tabulating nice credits into their goodwill accounts right about now. Come and spend your economic stimulus check at McDonald's, America, we won't serve you those evil deadly tomatoes; oh, and pay no attention to the fact that we aren't lowering our prices to compensate for the missing ingredients.

As for me, I enjoyed a fresh sliced tomato with sea salt as part of my dinner this evening. And I fully expect to be around next week to tell you how delicious it was, and how all of this was just scare-mongering and CYA.

Unless, of course, I'm killed by terrorists in the meantime.