Just as fast food chains Taco Bell and Wendy's are bringing the tomatoes back to their menus, the NYC Health Department announced that there have been six more reported cases of salmonella, bringing the total of NYC area cases of the disease to seven.

For the past few weeks, more and more cases of salmonella connected to tainted tomatoes have been reported across the country, forcing restaurants--especially national chains--to reconsider the role of raw tomatoes on their menus. Tomatoes grown in New York state do not seem to be affected and other types of types of tomatoes are still safe, such as grape tomatoes (the unsafe ones: raw red plum, red Roma, and red round tomatoes), people are worried and going on raw tomato sabbatical.

NYU School of Medicine associate professor Marc Siegel had a good column in Newsday explaining why tomatoes are good for you and why the salmonella issue is about contamination, not an issue inherent with the produce. Tere's the latest from the FDA on the tomato situation and here's the NYC Health Department on salmonella--wash your produce thoroughly!