Table 1.

Salmonella enterica contamination of tomato fruits via blossoms^a

Group	No. of tomatoes	S. enterica-positive rate (%)	No. of S. enterica-positive samples from:
			Surface only	Inside only	Both surface and inside
Exptl
Inoculated blossoms	71	70.4	21	1	28
Noninoculated blossoms	19	15.8	2	0	1
Control	22	0	0	0	0

^aA five-strain cocktail was inoculated onto individually labeled blossoms of tomato plants. All the tomato fruits derived from the inoculated and emergent flowers in the experimental and control groups were harvested and screened for surface and internal populations of Salmonella.