AUTLAN, Mexico - Inspectors are collecting soil, water and produce samples, reviewing export logs and combing packing plants in three major tomato-growing states in Mexico.

However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration appears no closer to finding the source of a mysterious salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 900 people nationwide.

It's not even 100 per cent sure that tomatoes are the cause.

A team of three FDA inspectors have gone through five farms in the western states of Jalisco and Sinaloa in the past two weeks, looking at all aspects of tomato production.

They've studied the greenhouses where they're grown, the packing plants where they're shut into boxes and the shipping methods for the trip north to the U.S.

They also plan to visit the northern state of Coahuila.

The results can't come too soon for the three Mexican states that were targeted by the FDA, along with farms in Texas and Florida.

Bonanza 2001 farm in Autlan, Jalisco, which normally exports about 12,000 tonnes of tomatoes a year to the U.S., has hundreds of tonnes sitting in a warehouse near the Texas-Mexico border as demand has plummeted, said spokesman Luis Almejo.

They may rot.

Sinaloa growers also face big losses.

"We're demanding that they release those results as soon as possible so that Sinaloa can be cleared of any suspicion," said Manuel Tarriba, president of Sinaloa's Tomato Growers Association.

Tarriba said he expects to get results by the end of next week.

The outbreak, which began in April in the U.S., has affected 943 people so far in 40 U.S. states, more of a third of the victims in Texas, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

There have been 225 cases reported since June 1 - evidence that the source likely has not been contained.

The U.S. tomato industry has taken a US$100-million hit as restaurants temporarily dropped tomatoes from their menus, and farmers have had to plow under their fields or leave crops to rot in packinghouses.

Mexico hasn't calculated its losses but growers here worry they still may be under a shadow of suspicion as late as November, when greenhouses harvest their summer tomatoes.

Last week, the U.S. government said it's looking at other vegetables but insisted that tomatoes remain the main suspect in the outbreak.

Salmonella can be transmitted to humans when fecal material from animals or humans contaminates food.

Fever, diarrhea and abdominal cramps typically start eight to 48 hours after infection and can last a week.

Many people recover without treatment. But severe infection and death are possible. At least 130 people have been hospitalized in this outbreak, the CDC says.

FDA inspectors wouldn't speak to an Associated Press reporter at the Bonanza 2001 farm, one of 15 in Jalisco state that export to the U.S.

As they reviewed the packing plant, workers in aprons, hairnets and plastic gloves cleaned and packed the last tomato harvest to be shipped to the company's warehouse in Pharr, Texas.

Bonanza has about 60 hectares of greenhouse tomatoes in a lush valley near Jalisco's south coast, an area shared by several U.S.-owned tomato growing companies.

That included San Antonio-based Desert Glory, North America's largest grower of greenhouse tomatoes.

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