UGH!!! I do NOT understand why there are still cases of salmonella popping up from tomatoes. I can’t for the life of me figure out why the FDA seems to be doing everything they can to just scare the sh*t out of people with all of their reports when they should be telling the public what to do to prevent it. Are they getting a kickback from the treatment of every new case reported?  Was the sale of certain kinds of tomatoes going down? The bottom line is that the salmonella virus does not live INSIDE a tomato! The virus is on the skin of the tomato. How did it get there? Well, it’s actually pretty simple. Most of the fields where tomatoes are grown are located in-well let’s just be nice and say that tomatoes are not grown on The Miracle Mile or The Upper East Side.  They are grown on farms in areas where the help that is hired to pick them is probably being paid $5 a day to pick them. Are you getting it yet? There is NO indoor plumbing in the middle of a farm is there? So there ya’ go! You hire some poor slob to go out in a field in 97 degree heat, with no place to go to the bathroom or wash his/her hands. You now have someone who relieves him/herself in the field and since I don’t think the Charmin bear delivers the odds are that only the Good Lord knows what they’re using to clean up with after-if anything at all! Handwashing is probably not even an option. This is how it gets on the skin of your favorite salad tomato. So, just how do we get rid of it? All it would take to rid the poor tomatoe of this godawful virus would be to wash it with soap and water BEFORE you slice it.  As I said, the virus lives on the skin of the tomatoe ( or any other fruit or veggie ) and it is only spread to the inside of the tomatoe when you slice it!  All the FDA needs to do is inform people that if they wash their fruits and veggies properly before eating them they are almost guaranteed that they will kill the salmonella and be able to enjoy their meal.  Why keep blaming the poor little red guys? Blame the morons who are too lazy to wash them after they buy them!The one thing that never occurred to me was to wash the skins of melons, such as watermelon, honeydew and such. The same applies to them as it does to the poor victimized tomatoe.   Well, I eat tomatoes 5 out of 7 days a week ( another one of my addictions ) and haven’t stopped eating them.  I used to use that Vegetable Wash solution but I found that it left a vile tasting residue no matter how long I rinsed it so I just use Lemon Joy or whatever I’m washing my dishes with at the time. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly a scare is spread but the publicity of the solution is always far behind. Well, I’m off to make a tomatoe & mozzarella salad so it will be ready for dinner tomorrow! Someone has to show the poor toamtoes that they are still loved!