Believe it or not there is a shortage of  Tomatos! Here is the 411 from Sara Schwartz who is a culinary school graduate and Associate Editor at Delish.com.

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A burger with all the fixings just lost a key player. On Feb. 11, all 6,500 Wendy's locations in the U.S., posted signs at their drive-through windows and counters announcing that customers must specially request a tomato slice on all burgers and chicken sandwiches.

Hurricanes, hard freezes, blight. The world can be tough for a tomato. And thanks to an unusually cold winter in both Florida and Mexico, our country's main sources of the red stuff, times are tough for Wendy's customers, too. These cold blasts from Mother Nature are to blame for halving the normal yield and doubling prices of tomatoes, making them too precious for automatic inclusion in your fast-food sandwich. According to the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, it's highly unusual for Florida and Mexico to experience freezes in the same season.

McDonald's said "it's business as usual," despite the tomato shortage, while Burger King reports "temporary spot outages" until tomatoes that meet their standards in those markets become available. Dairy Queen corporate said it informed their franchisees that tomatoes will be harder to get, but didn't direct them to stop serving the slices on their sandwiches. We also contacted Subway restaurant headquarters to see if it's stores have been affected, but have not heard back yet.

This year's freeze in Mexico also damaged crops of cucumbers, bell peppers, zucchini, and green beans, causing shortages and higher prices for those items, as well. Salads and salsas are going to cost a pretty penny for a while, we can only assume, but fresh veggie fans can take heart — growers expect a full tomato crop yield by April.

"We've heard the shortage will continue through mid-April," said Wendy's Director of Communications, Kitty Munger. "Once the new crop is in, it'll be just a few days until customers see [tomatoes] in stores again."

Thanks to Sara Schwartz who is a culinary school graduate and Associate Editor at Delish.com for the story!!

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