Russ Carmack / Tacoma News Tribune Raw tomatoes are commonly used in sandwiches from fast-food restaurants.

As tomatoes were yanked by grocery stores and fast-food restaurants nationwide Monday, California growers expressed concern.

"It's just a tragedy," said Scott Deardorff, whose Oxnard-based Deardorff Family Farms grows and packs both round and Roma tomatoes.

Ventura County tomato growers don't begin harvesting this year's crop until the end of the month, and California's tomatoes have been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

But with corporations — including Trader Joe's, Vons, Ralphs, In-N-Out Burger, Jack in the Box, Wendy's, McDonald's, Chipotle and Sam's Club — asking their stores to pull tomatoes as a precaution in response to a salmonella outbreak, Deardorff described feeling guilty by association.

"It just hurts a lot of people for really no reason," he said.

In the past, FDA warnings concerning food-borne illnesses linked to a particular agricultural commodity have had far-reaching ramifications for companies within an industry.

"It's terrible," Deardorff said. "They just issue a corporate call to remove all tomatoes. Everyone gets on the bandwagon; it hits the media and it's just a tragedy."

Tomatoes ranked as the fifth-largest crop in Ventura County in 2006, with $102.4 million in sales, according to the latest figures from the Agricultural Commissioner's office.

California not source

"The California Department of Public Health has also confirmed that California tomatoes are not the source of the single Salmonella related illness in California," the California Tomato Farmers, a growers' cooperative, said in a statement on its Web site.

"While California tomatoes can continue to be purchased with confidence, it is the hope of California Tomato Farmers' members that the current investigation move quickly and aggressively to determine the outbreak source so that tomato farmers in other production areas who are not involved in the outbreak do not continue to suffer economic harm."

In the meantime, consumers can expect to see notices at fast-food drive-through windows and grocery stores about tomatoes being pulled.

Debbie Voss, who owns five McDonald's franchises in Ventura County, took tomato slices off sandwiches Monday after a conference call with corporate headquarters.

She said she's had no reports of anyone getting sick after eating at one of her stores.

McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud said Monday that the world's largest hamburger chain has stopped serving sliced tomatoes on all of its sandwiches in the United States until the source of the salmonella is known.

Proud says McDonald's will continue to serve grape tomatoes in its salads because no problems have been linked to that variety.

Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe's and Vons pulled certain tomatoes off their shelves, along with other restaurant and supermarket chains.

The source of the tomatoes responsible for the illnesses in at least 16 states has not been pinpointed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said at least 23 people have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

The FDA is investigating the source of the outbreak, FDA spokeswoman Kimberly Rawlings said in an e-mail.

Saintpaul' infection

On Saturday, the FDA said the outbreak was linked to certain varieties of raw tomatoes, including red plum, red Roma and red round. Investigations by the Texas and New Mexico Departments of Health and the U.S. Indian Health Service have tied 56 cases in Texas and 55 in New Mexico to raw, uncooked tomatoes.

An additional 50 people have been sickened by the same salmonella "Saintpaul" infection in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. Investigators are trying to determine if raw tomatoes also are responsible for the illnesses in those states, said Arleen Porcell, a CDC spokeswoman.

— Star staff writer Alexandra Wilcox and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

On the Net:

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html

http://www.californiatomato farmers.com