Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Disclaimer: The author takes no responsibility for the results or lack of results for following the cooking, cleaning and disinfecting techniques related in this article. The FDA recommends avoiding any tomatoes not cleared by that Agency. Let's face up to it! All of our fruits and veggies are suspect in Mexico. We have to seize the initiative.
OK, so “The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes,” was a cheaply produced 1978 B-movie spoof. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_of_the_Killer_Tomatoes
The movie has attained status as a cult film, perhaps because the idea is so ridiculous- or is it? Who's killing who now? One death by salmonella has been attributed to the Killer Tomatoes this summer of 2008.
First the cattle got mad on us, now it's the veggies. Every summer for the last three years, the American consumer has been attacked by vengeful vegetables, hell bent on wreaking mayhem on our health and comfort zones. Green onions, baby spinach and now tomatoes have risen up against us.
“In the United States, food-borne diseases result in 76 million illnesses and 5,000 deaths annually. These numbers sound large—until you put them in perspective. Influenza and pneumonia, for instance, together kill more than 61,000 Americans a year.” http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/6018
So what do Americans do in the home of the Free and the land of the Brave? Do we just sit around and whine that the FDA should do something so we can continue to enjoy prepackaged salads washed for our instant enjoyment? Should we ban all imported fruits and vegetables? Or should we as chefs, home cooks and bottle washers do what we can to protect customers and families? I like the last option best.
The great tomato scare in the United States has led to a very low price on tomatoes here in Central Mexico near Guadalajara where some 40,000 American and Canadians make their home. The United States Federal Department of Agriculture, http://www.fda.gov/oc/history/historyoffda/default.htm has taken a super safe position on the use of suspect tomatoes. http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/tomatqa.html#wash
The FDA has to be conservative. The egg accumulated on their faces might give them salmonellosis. They must appear conservative and hold themselves up as the great protector of American health. Do you really trust the government to protect your food's safety? They do not have a perfect record. Let's face it. For the government to do the job right would take a lot more money than is in today's FDA budget.
Do you think that we Gringos residing in Mexico, are about to give up tomatoes when they are selling locally for 3.90 Mexican Pesos per Kilogram? That price is about $0.18 USD per pound! Of course not! We are going to wash them with vegetable disinfectant and eat them fresh with salads and in uncooked salsas as well as making salsa casera (home style cooked salsas). The more enterprising among us are canning them, and cooking them into spaghetti sauce. Cooking them sure takes the fight out of Killer Tomatoes, despite what the FDA says. "In Mexico we don't got no steekin FDA!"
The two worst culprits of food borne illnesses are salmonella and e-coli. Many methods have been devised by mankind for taking care of these culprits. Let's look at some of the methods used to kill the two major illness causing bacterial contaminants found in vegetables.
Method one- Cook your food to best ensure its safety.
We have already mentioned cooking. The first thing that man and woman did after inventing fire was to warm their extremities and tushies. The second thing that woman did was to learn to cook. The guys made smoked Mammoth jerky and sat around the Man-Fire talking about their last hunt and planning the next.
Eventually, Genghis Khan ordered his soldiers to boil their drinking water or be put to death for not doing so. This was more than 600 years before canning was invented by the French as a way to feed Napoleon's marching army. So for centuries people have cooked and canned food as a way of preserving food and preventing food-borne illnesses.
Method two- Eat your raw vegetables with nature's antibiotics, white wine, cilantro, lime juice and vinegar based salad dressings.
So, you just have to have your raw veggies? Let's talk about ways to make them safer to ingest. Let's look at some reported methods.
How is it that people in Mexico, even us Gringos are able to safely consume prodigious quantities of fresh salsa in local restaurants and in our homes and not sicken ourselves? Let's look at the ingredients of fresh salsa or as it is often called: pico de gallo (rooster's beak). The ingredients used are chopped fresh uncooked onions, tomatoes and jalapeño peppers. To this mix is added fresh squeezed lime juice, salt and chopped fresh cilantro leaves. One would think that a mix of fresh chopped Mexican vegetables would be a case of touristas caused by salmonella waiting to happen. However, fresh salsa has two big things going for it.
A chemical named dodecanol, found in cilantro leaves and seeds is a powerful antibotic. It was found to be twice as potent as gentamicin, a medicinal antibiotic commonly used to kill salmonella.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/8638php In addition, approximately a dozen other antibiotic compounds were found in cilantro according to the above article. Cumin, another spice used in Mexican food was also found to be a good source of dodecanol.
Another bacteria fighting ingredient of salsa is the citric acid found in lime juice. In Mexico, restaurants often serve lime slices with fresh vegetables. Vinegar, http://www.stretcher.com/stories/01/010514e.cfm is maybe even more effective against bacteria because it is a stronger acid when used at the 5% strength direct from the bottle.
“Mark Daeschel, an Oregon State University (OSU) food scientist, is a microbial safety specialist. He and OSU research assistants Jessica Just and Joy Waite have completed research indicating that wine kills bacteria when it is consumed with a meal.” http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5409/is_200208/ai_n21316519
. Hey this is great. Now we can sit around and tell our wives that we are cleansing our innards by drinking lots of wine! Method Three- Disinfect your raw vegetables prior to use.
Maybe you hate cilantro and acid foods. What are you, some difficult spoiled brat? OK, I'll be a good sport and look at cilantro-free ways to disinfect the veggies without leaving the acid taste.
My first suggestion is to use a clean spray bottle of vinegar, either white or brown apple cider vinegar. Spray your tomatoes with full strength vinegar. Let them sit for fifteen minutes and then rinse with sterile water, either bottled or boiled and cooled tap water. For lettuce, cabbage and green onions, soak them in clean water mixed with vinegar and finish off with a pure water rinse. It would help to wash your hands in a vinegar solution also.
Another well known disinfectant used in Mexico and sold in the supermarket vegetable aisles is a colloidal silver solution. The solution is sold under the Trade Name BAC-DYN in our area. The recommended use strength is 10 drops of solution for each liter (a little more than a quart) of water to disinfect vegetables and utensils.
One well known side effect of taking massive doses of silver is Argyria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyria . There is the case of the man in Oregon who turned his skin blue from drinking colloidal silver and applying it to his skin, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22536241/ . Don't get carried away, or you may have to move to California or to Key West to fit in with the locals. Stick to the recommended solution strength.
Another older method and one not likely to leave bad tasting residue is vegetable treatment with a solution of tincture of iodine in water. Residual elemental iodine sublimates into the air and does not leave bad flavors. Tincture of Iodine is of course, a deadly poison if someone drinks it straight. http://www.cwrg.org/ .
Iodine is also an essential nutrient in low concentration. Backpacker's iodine water purification tablets can be used to make solutions for purifying vegetables, http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/manual/water.shtml .
Lettuce and cabbage should be separated into leaves. They should be thoroughly washed in whatever disinfecting solution and then dried either in air or by blotting on paper towels.
Method Four- Eat FDA approved Irradiated Food ☺
Your FDA is now recommending irradiated foods for safety. If you believe it and have lots of money, have all of your food irradiated.
The only food irradiation process generally available in Mexico is to sun-dry fruits and veggies in wire screens or to thread peppers into colorful ristas and give them a good sunning. It seems to work well and is very cost effective.
http://www.fda.gov/opacom/catalog/irradbro.html .
