Here are seven of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness. [More]
tomatoes
Scientists Reinstalling “Tasty” Genes In Supermarket Tomatoes
By 1.27.17
Researchers recently confirmed what food storage experts had long believed: Refrigerating tomatoes causes them to lose flavor. Now scientists are hoping that some genetic tinkering will turn blah supermarket tomatoes into flavorful rivals to their farm-fresh cousins. [More]
Science Explains Why Refrigerated Tomatoes Lack Flavor
By 10.17.16
From the dawn of time, food enthusiasts, chefs, and people who eat have been arguing on exactly where their produce should be kept. While experts have previously told Consumerist that keeping tomatoes in the refrigerator isn’t a good idea, that recommendation has been confirmed through the power of science. [More]
Boston College Now Reports 120 Students Sick, Possibly From Chipotle (But Not E. Coli)
By 12.9.15
After another day of student health center admissions and disease incubation, Boston College now reports that 120 of their students are sick with vomiting and nausea. The majority report that they had recently eaten at a Chipotle restaurant near the campus over the weekend, proving either that they contracted the illness there, or that college students are very fond of Chipotle and norovirus happens is very contagious. [More]
Recent Salmonella Outbreak In Minnesota Linked To Tomatoes Served At 22 Chipotle Locations
By 9.17.15
A recent salmonella outbreak in Minnesota that’s sickened 64 people and hospitalized nine has now been traced back to tomatoes that were served at 22 Chipotle restaurants in the state, prompting the chain to switch tomato suppliers. [More]
Mysterious Salmonella Outbreak Had Innocent Victims: Tomatoes
By 9.29.14
We like to share news of product, food, and vehicle recalls, because keeping our readers free from fire, illness, and injury is very important to us. However, every recall and warning of potentially contaminated food has hidden victims. Sometimes those victims are vegetables left to rot in the fields, and the farmers who were supposed to sell them. [More]
Some Costco and Safeway Tomatoes Recalled For Possible Salmonella Contamination
By 9.16.14
If your garden’s plentiful supply of tomatoes is running low and you thought, “Hey, I’ll just run to Costco to stock-up on some Fresh Roma tomatoes,” then you better rethink that strategy. A California produce company recalled a lot of tomatoes, and the salad kits they come in over the weekend, you know, because salmonella doesn’t make them taste any fresher. [More]
Heat Wave Leaves Hundreds Of Thousands Of Tomatoes To Rot Stinkily In Fields
By 8.27.14
Sure, farming can be stinky business. There are all those acres in need of fertilizer, after all, making things grow. But it’s an overdose of tomatoes that’s making fields stink to high heaven in Illinois, just south of St. Louis, Mo. [More]
Don’t Put Your Bread In The Fridge & Other Important Food Storage Tips
By 3.29.14 — Updated: 10.26.16
We’ve all got a somewhat innate sense of where to store the foods we eat in our modern cultures — you’re not going to stick your ice cream in the pantry and expect it to stay frozen, or freeze your fresh apples. But what about butter — countertop or refrigerator? Should I really use that “eggs” slot on the inside of my fridge door? Answer us, oh kitchen gods! [More]
5 Tips To Save Your Food From Getting Gross
By 10.9.13
The kitchen can turn from a bastion of culinary hopes and dreams bursting to the seams with fresh food into a sad wasteland of ruined recipes and deflated expectations if you don’t eat your groceries quickly enough. But there’s no need to resign yourself to that fate, friends. You can save your food if you know how. [More]
Tomato Thieves Terrorize Florida Trucking Industry
By 4.15.11
These tomato thieves aren’t just naughty bunnies nibbling in your garden, but a sophisticated band of crooks taking advantage of the high price of produce right now to take in $300,000 hauls, reports the NYT. [More]
Bad Weather Leads To Tomato Shortage At Wendy's
By 2.16.11
Bad weather in Mexico and Florida, two of Wendy’s biggest sources for tomatoes, has pushed many of the chain’s restaurants to switch to a “by request only” policy for getting tomatoes on your sandwiches. [More]
Are Upside-Down Tomato Planters No Good?
By 8.11.10
A tipster sent us a link to this short advice column on gardening at PennLive.com, where the author says upside-down planters in general aren’t that great, and in dry hot summers are particularly bad for your tomatoes. [More]
Wendy's: If You Want Tomatoes You Will Have To Ask
By 3.3.10
Crappy freezing weather in Florida has resulted in a lack of acceptable tomatoes to put on your burger, says Wendy’s. So, if you want tomato, you will no longer get it automatically. You’re going to have to ask,and even then you might not get the sort of luscious tomato experience you are accustomed to at Wendy’s. [More]
FDA: Go Ahead And Eat Tomatoes, We Give Up
By 7.17.08
Well, the FDA isn’t sure what caused that salmonella outbreak, but they’re lifting the tomato warning anyway, according to the Associated Press. They’d still appreciate it if you tried not to eat raw jalapeno and serrano peppers, because, well, they have to tell you not to eat something, I guess.
Health Officials: Did We Say Tomatoes? We Meant Jalapeño Peppers
By 7.7.08
After causing the tomato industry to lose an estimated $100 million, health investigators have essentially recanted their contaminated tomato theory and have focused their attention on jalapeño peppers. The Baltimore Sun reports that new interviews with salmonella victims have revealed that many of them ate salsa containing jalepeños. Other common Mexican food ingredients such as cilantro are also being investigated, however, no new samples have tested positive for salmonella. Details, inside…
So, We're Probably Never Going To Know Where The Salmonella Came From
By 6.23.08
The FDA still has no real idea where those salmonella tomatoes came from. They suspect both Mexico and Florida, but as you may have noticed: Florida and Mexico are kind of big. And there’s no real evidence aside from a guess by the FDA based on the “time frame” of the outbreak matching up with the harvest in those locations.
BW3 Has A Nuanced Understanding Of Food Safety
By 6.10.08
Reader Dennis took this photo at a BW3 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He says:
