The nationwide tomato crisis has landed in Lorain County.

Many local fast food restaurants have pulled raw fresh Roma, plum and red rounds from their menus because of the salmonella scare associated with tomatoes grown in certain states.

You won’t find tomatoes on sandwiches and salads at McDonalds on East Broad Street and Midway Boulevard in Elyria, at Burger King on West Avenue, Taco Bell on Cleveland Street, or at Wendy’s on Center Ridge Road in North Ridgeville, managers at those restaurants said.

Signs hanging in the windows at most of those eateries explain that the fruit has been put on timeout until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says they are safe again.

A manager at Apple’s on North Abbe Road in Elyria said the store’s supplier has suspended all shipment of those tomato types, and those types of tomatoes were pulled from the bins.

Save-a-Lot on Cleveland Street and Marc’s on Midway Boulevard did the same thing, employees said.

The Giant Eagle near Midway Mall hasn’t been affected at all by the salmonella scare because its suppliers were cleared by the FDA, a manager said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Tuesday expanded its salmonella warning nationwide as it searches for the origin of the tainted tomatoes, though industry insiders and early reports suggested that the field has been narrowed to Florida — which has been cleared as safe by the FDA — or Mexico.

“Preliminary information suggests that the tomatoes may have come from Mexico, though the FDA’s investigation does not confirm that,” said Deborah Busemeyer, a spokeswoman for the New Mexico Department of Health. The state alone has seen 63 cases of the rare strain Salmonella saintpaul.

The FDA advised restaurants, grocery stores and food service operators not to sell products made with the three tomato varieties unless they were certain that the fruit was grown in approved states.

 U.S. health officials said there were no confirmed salmonella deaths linked to the outbreak, which was reported in at least 17 states. Fewer than 200 people turned up sick.

 

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