Tomato farmers hurt

[Guest guest]

Full article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080402119.\

html?hpid=topnews

While throwing a few rotten tomatoes at U.S. regulators might help ease

growers' pain, those involved in the latest salmonella epidemic would prefer

cash for their trouble.

After weeks of implicating domestic tomatoes in an outbreak of Salmonella

saintpaul, federal food-safety sleuths shifted the spotlight to jalapeño and

serrano peppers grown in Mexico.

But before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted the tomato advisory

July 17, U.S. tomato growers were left holding the shopping bag.

Growers said they lost $100 million in sales during the investigation, which

they charge was conducted poorly and without enough consultation with them.

The growers knew the agency hadn't gotten to the source of the problem after

the FDA told people to stop eating tomatoes and the illnesses increased,

said Guenther, senior vice president for public policy for United

Fresh Produce Association, an industry group in Washington.

Things got even more problematic for investigators when tests didn't turn up

a single domestic tomato with the bacteria. The late reprieve for the

industry shows how difficult it is to conduct international investigations

of food-borne illnesses with limited resources and imperfect ways to trace a

product back to its source.

At the same time, pressure has intensified to solve cases quickly and to pay

for " mistakes " made.

Holding a tomato in one hand and a jalapeño in the other, Rep. Bart Stupak

(D-Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight and

investigations subcommittee, pressed the FDA on whether the tomato was still

a " vegetable of interest " or had been cleared.

W.K. Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for food, responded at

a July 31 hearing that no mistakes had been made and that tomatoes on the

market were safe to eat.

The FDA said it followed the leads provided by the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention. It found in early interviews with sick people that,

overwhelmingly, they had eaten raw tomatoes in salsa or Mexican-style

restaurant food.

The Salmonella saintpaul case began in May when federal and state

investigators identified cases of the infection, which can cause serious

illness and death, in New Mexico and Texas.

--

Ortiz, RD

A morning without coffee is like sleep.