Any ideas why most of the “artificially” grown produce tastes like carboard. Tomatoes in particular. White flesh, never ripen before they rot, I call them cardmatoes.
OTH, home grown tomatoes are delicious. So what is the reason? If they control everything perfectly… why is the result crap?
Anyway… drifting way away from food poisoning.
OK, regarding tomatoes, there is a “hot house” grown method. They’re on massive trellises inside a warehouse sized greenhouse. But they’re not all created equal. How you fertilize them means a world of difference.
Greenhouse tomatoes can suffer from several problems, including temperature extremes, excessive humidity, and lack of pollination .
I’ve had good hot-house grown tomatoes, but most of the time in large supermarkets they’re lousy. And usually the problem goes back again to mass production in a central location, then the tomatoes are shipped out. And in order to survive shipping, they’re picked before ripened, so the skin is tough to resist bruising and abrasions during transit.
There is one variety that has managed to solve the problem somewhat. The Kumato variety. They’re a ruddy brown in appearance. People who expect bright red tomatoes tend to frown upon the brown. But, they’re very tasty. And they slow ripen. I buy a 6-tomato tray from Trader Joe’s and they’ll keep for 2~3 weeks without refrigeration, before mold starts to set in.
I will have to try those. I have tried many. While some can be semi-OK in sauces, none are much good for salads or sandwiches.
Most of them are sourced from either Canada or Mexico, but I believe some are being grown in California.
I grew a similar variety in my own backyard. The Black Krim. So delicious. Nothing quite having your own heirloom tomatoes freshly grown. But there are a lot of nuances involved to get a good crop.
Oh, nice, I’ve only seen those in pictures but they look fantastic.
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Not answering your question, but I’d contact the local health department if I got food poisoning from their food. It could be contaminated produce coming in, and also going to other restaurants as well. Health department could jump in and figure it out real quick and keep others in different areas from becoming ill.
It could be Listeria. Past listeriosis outbreaks in the U.S. have been linked to raw, unpasteurized milks and cheeses, ice cream, raw or processed vegetables, raw or processed fruits, raw or undercooked poultry, sausages, hot dogs, deli meats, and raw or smoked fish and other seafood. Listeria can kill people!!!
Also, a relatively quick remedy for many types of food poisoning is colloidal silver. You don’t need much. The silver is quite anti bacterial, anti microbial, etc. Kills the germs in your gut!
As an example regarding silver’s properties, burn creams typically contain silver. Eye drops that are put in newborn’s eyes contain silver. Settlers crossing America used to throw a silver dollar in their milk containers, as the silver kept the milk from spoiling longer. Some anti-odor socks use silver in the weave to kill odor producing germs…
UPDATE:
Okay, I posted some things that were wrong, so it’s time to set the record straight.
My sister got food poisoning from eating rice that was sitting out too long, so someone in my family has gotten food poisoning from home cooking.
In fact, my sister was sick with that food poisoning about a week before my mom and I got sick.
So, we could have gotten norovirus from my sister, even though we did not interact with her very much when she was sick.
Which means, if I got food poisoning, it most likely was from John’s Restaurant, but I could have gotten norovirus from my sister instead.
My mom and I ate at John’s last Friday, and today.
We did not get sick last time, and I hope we don’t get sick today.
Someone posted that people that get food poisoning often think that they got it at the last place that they ate, and that might have been what I did as well.
I don’t like it when I’m wrong, but I try to admit it when I even might be wrong.
My family and I love to eat at John’s, so I wrote them a little advertisement:
John’s Restaurant–the food is so good that you’ll even come back if you think you got food poisoning from us! 
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Good job, raccoon. Not everybody would come clean on a misstatement like you did. Well done.
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Thanks!
I feel better now that I’ve been completely truthful.
I don’t know for sure that I got norovirus from my sister, but that’s what I think happened (now.) 
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I think that was Beefsteak Charlie’s ad campaign… right before they went out of business.
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I noticed an “F” on the glass door of John’s Restaurant.
I told my mom that the place has an “F” rating, but I was kidding around.
The “F” was for Facebook.
The restaurant has an “A” rating, though as pointed out in this thread, that doesn’t mean the place is necessarily safe.
respect!
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Eating rice that has been out too long is going to give you a bacterial food intoxication. Bacillus cereus is a bacteria associated with rice. When it is heated it survives by forming heat resistant spores, if it is allowed to sit too long after cooking then the spores release a toxin that makes you sick.
Norovirus is usually from contact with a contaminated surface and touching a mucous membrane in your nasopharengeyl (sp) cavity, or fecal/oral transmission.
Without getting tested you would never know how it happened, since you need to know what is was that caused it in order to figure out the likely source.
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I did not know that.
According to my research, Bacillus cereus is not contagious, though. 
Newer update:
My sister (and niece) got sick from meat that was left out too long.
It was not rice.
I do no know what type of meat it was, and I did ask.
I got confused because about the same time that they got sick my mom told me that people can get sick from rice that is left out too long (which I already had suspected.)
Thanks for that info.
I recently discovered Gaba rice that is a specially processed rice for maximum nutritional benefit. It’s a “pearl” rice style (versus long grain). Very tasty. Just a few dashes of whatever spice sauces you like and it’s a nice little snack, or a good addition to an entree. So I’m making rice more often these days.
Sometimes I let the rice sit in the refrigerator a bit long… like as much as 2 weeks. Because there’s no preservatives, the rice usually goes bad by then. You see a slight sticky white film and there’s a slight odor… and if you taste it, you get a sour rancid flavor. Of course, that ends up tossed! But I have eaten rice that’s “just about” to get to that point. It still tastes fine but there’s a slightly sticky texture without any whitish discoloration. Layer on some hot sauce, heat it up, and it’s good. I’ve never gotten sick from that. But I’d rather err on the side of caution, now that I’m hearing about rice food poisoning!
I recently picked up a set of those Post-It page marker notes. They’re terrific for writing down a date and applying to a container, so you know when it was last prepared and put in the fridge. Of course, you can also just use scissors on a regular size post-it note and get about 4 temp labels to apply to food containers.
If the rice is cooled to below 4C quickly the spores do not germinate, it is only when it is given sufficient time between 50C and 4C that it occurs. Most, but not all, bacteria do not grow below 4C.
Now imagine the dewd who first came up with natto.
“Hmm, those beans got all slimy and sticky and… ewww, actually stringy slime holding them together. I think I’ll eat them anyway!”
Or casu marzu. Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew.
People are f’ed up.
I always say that about coffee and chocolate too. Who was the first guy to suck on a coffee berry and spit the seed out into the fire and later pick it back out of the fire and think “Hmm I wonder what would happen if I grind this and then run hot water over it?” Chocolate is even more bizarre, the fresh cacao fruit tastes like any number of other exotic jungle fruits with a bunch of seeds inside a pod surrounded by a snotty sweet paste, sweet but unremarkable flavor and tastes absolutely nothing like chocolate. And then even after roasting the seeds they still look and smell gross.
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Did they ever respond to your complaint?
Did they perform an investigation?
If they did, what were the results?