OK, I know this is last week's news. Sometimes it just takes a while for these things to rise to the surface of my brain.

I saw an article about tomatoes that are normally exported from Mexico to the United States. Because of the salmonella cases, exports were stopped. Growers were discarding the lower quality tomatoes they normally sell to their countrymen and instead sold the American-quality product to Mexicans. That in itself was enlightening. I don't think it makes us look very good to insist on "perfect" produce while imperfect produce is good enough for everyone else.

The article said Mexicans weren't worried about the possibility of salmonella contamination because they're in the habit of washing all their produce anyway.

What? Don't we all wash our produce before we use it? I do! Who knows what's on it?

When I see people in the produce section stealing grapes or cherries by popping them in their mouths, I'm as scandalized at the risks they're taking with their health as I am by their thefts. I'm still surprised to see a vendor at a farmers market pick up fruit, cut off a slice and offer it to me. (I figure that if he or she has enough confidence to serve it to me it's safe to eat it.)

Learning that Mexicans don't worry about salmonella because they wash their produce made me wonder if we have salmonella outbreaks here because people don't wash their produce. Now I really want to know: Do American restaurants wash it?