Quite a while has passed since the Salmonella outbreak linked to certain types of tomatoes has begun, and no answer has been found as to why and how the infection occurred. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data on the number of people infected with the disease from eating raw tomatoes. The number rose to 383 in 30 states and Washington, D.C. up from 277 cases in 28 states and Washington, according to data previously reported on Monday.

The actual numbers may be far higher. The Seattle PI reported on its Web site that more than 8,000 people may have actually been sickened in this salmonella outbreak, because previous studies have shown that for every one case of salmonellosis reported, there are 38 additional cases that are not reported.

It seems that the recently proposed $275 million increase to the already approved $2.4 billion budget for the FDA is long overdue. That money will be used as follows: $125 million to protect the food supply, $100 million for the safety of drugs and medical devices and $50 million to prepare the FDA's workforce and laboratories for new types of challenges such as nanotechnology and gene therapies.

The disease produced by the Salmonella bacteria is called salmonellosis and for most of the infected people is known to cause diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps. The illness generally lasts four to seven days and people normally choose to tough it out without a treatment.

The outbreak comes just months after CDC reported in April that U.S.' struggle to contain foodborne illness showed little progress in 2007, although they had a constant incidence between 2004 and 2006. According to the report, there were 17,883 confirmed cases of foodborne infections in 2007. Salmonella was by far the leader of all foodborne infections with an incidence rate of 14.92 per 100,000 people.