An estimated three-fourths of the tomatoes sold in Hawai'i are grown here and are safe to eat, yet worries about a Mainland salmonella outbreak have grocery stores, restaurants and consumers on the alert.

On Thursday, the number of people affected by a rare salmonella strain called Saintpaul jumped to 228 in 23 states. At least 25 people have been hospitalized since mid-April, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We can feel good and comfortable at this time that Ha-wai'i is not part of that," said Dr. Sarah Park, deputy chief for the state Health Department's disease outbreak control division.

"We rarely see that strain in Hawai'i, so definitely if we started getting reports of it, we'd be alerted," she said.

Park confirmed that no cases of Saintpaul salmonella have been reported in Hawai'i in 2008.

Hawai'i remains on the Food and Drug Administration's safe list of regions that produce tomatoes and are not connected with the outbreak. Hawai'i tomatoes are not shipped to the Mainland because of a federal fruit fly quarantine, so it is unlikely they would be among the tomatoes that caused the illnesses.

The FDA was investigating parts of Florida and Mexico yesterday as possible sources of the tainted tomatoes.

The FDA warns consumers to avoid raw red plum, red Roma or red round tomatoes, or products containing these types of raw tomatoes, unless they were grown in specific states and countries identified by the organization.

Earlier in the week, McDonald's restaurants nationwide banned those kinds of tomatoes in their sandwiches. Local McDonald's were able to get an exemption because they serve only locally grown tomatoes, said Victor Lim, chairman of the Hawai'i Restaurant Association and owner of six McDonald's franchises.

Other chain restaurants in Hawai'i were directed by their corporate headquarters to take tomatoes off their menus, he said, even though the tomatoes may have been grown here.

About 75 percent of tomatoes sold in Hawai'i are grown locally, according to the Hawai'i and U.S. departments of agriculture. Even so, Lim said, some local restaurants are still concerned.

"Produce today is so spread out that even if it's grown in one place, it could be processed in another place," he said.

TOMATOES TOSSED

Rainbow Drive-In briefly stopped serving tomatoes this week after it received a batch of tomatoes from California last weekend because of a shortage of the locally grown tomatoes it usually uses. Several of its dishes require tomatoes, including chop steak, spaghetti and chili, said manager Pam Martin.

When news of the Mainland outbreak spread over the weekend, the restaurant decided to pull the tomatoes on Tuesday and Wednesday, she said.

"I was scared because salmonella is pretty serious, and we didn't want to infect people or pass it on," she said.

Rainbow Drive-In has put tomatoes back into its plate lunches since receiving a batch of locally grown tomatoes on Wednesday.

Other restaurants across the state also tossed tomatoes this week. Subway at Restaurant Row threw out all its tomatoes last weekend because of salmonella concerns, but received a new batch of FDA-approved tomatoes on Monday, a manager at the restaurant said Thursday.

Jack in the Box and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants across the state also took suspected types of tomatoes off the menu this week.

Grocery stores also heeded the FDA advisory. Foodland stores left only locally grown tomatoes on the shelves and pulled all imported tomatoes "as a precaution," said Foodland spokeswoman Sheryl Toda.

On Thursday, shoppers at Safeway on Kapahulu Avenue chose from locally grown and hothouse tomatoes set out beneath a sign assuring customers that all the store's tomatoes were safe.

"We currently offer only tomatoes from geographic areas unaffected by the (FDA) advisory and/or tomato varieties that are not affected by the advisory," the sign said. "This temporarily limits our supply. We are working with various suppliers to increase our quantities and selections."

Times Supermarkets sells only Hawai'i-grown tomatoes and tomatoes from areas in California that have been ruled out as sources of the outbreak, said Bob Stout, Times store operations manager.

LOCAL LABEL KEY

Local tomato growers said initial concerns from buyers were mostly cleared up when the FDA put Hawai'i on its safe list this week.

Just in case, Green Growers in Hau'ula, which sells to local groceries and restaurants, has been clearly labeling its Hau'ula tomatoes, vice president Terry Shintaku said yesterday.

"As long as they know it's a local Hawai'i-grown product, it's OK," he said.

"It's become an eye-opening issue, I think, for a lot of people," he said. "Now, people are looking toward local produce because it's deemed to be safer ... It's definitely good for us."

Consumers this week said they were not too concerned about tainted tomatoes or seeing tomatoes disappear from menus and store shelves.

Randall Cagaon, 18, who was eating lunch at KFC on Thursday, said he was glad the restaurant had taken tomatoes off the menu for safety reasons.

"You never know what may happen, so better safe than sorry," he said.

Asher Tamanaha, Shayne Takemoto and Jason Imamura were having a tomato-free lunch at Jack in the Box on Kapahulu Avenue on Thursday.

Tamanaha, a chef at 3660 on the Rise, said concerns about tomatoes had not reached his restaurant.

"I'm not really too worried," he said.

"I never really sweated it," Takemoto said. "I don't like tomatoes anyway."

"There's a lot more to be concerned about than worrying about tomatoes," Imamura said.