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For now, the FDA continues to urge consumers nationwide to avoid raw red plum, red Roma or red round tomatoes unless they were grown in specific states or countries that the agency has cleared of suspicion. Check the FDA's Web site -- http://www.fda.gov -- for an updated list. Also safe are grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached.

That advice is coming under fire too because tomatoes are sent through multiple repacking and distribution sites around the country, even to Mexico and back, regardless of where they're grown. But Acheson said the advice would be fine-tuned only if new science emerges.

Even Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt expressed frustration Tuesday that the case isn't solved.

"Nothing happens fast enough when you have a problem like this," Leavitt said as he asked Congress for more funds and stronger legal powers for food and consumer safety agencies. Still, "I feel confident we will find the solution to this problem."

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Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.

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