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Florida growers want healthy tomatoes
United States
Wednesday 07 November 2007
Florida tomato growers watched nervously when a spinach scare swept the nation last year.
Contaminated with E. coli, the California-grown spinach poisoned at least 205 people and led to three deaths in 26 states.
Florida's huge tomato industry hasn't been rocked with a comparable outbreak.
But this year, tomato growers joined the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in pushing for state oversight that would send state inspectors for the first time to farms and packing plants.
The Legislature approved a bill giving inspection power to the department, now in the midst of writing regulations that would take effect next summer.
About 12 percent of food-borne illness stem from eating produce, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Though fresh produce is a vitamin-rich part of a healthy diet, it often is eaten raw, so there is no heat or pressure-packing step that kills harmful bacteria and viruses when they contaminate produce.
Sending inspectors to farms would fill a dangerous gap in the nation's food safety program, said Sarah Klein, staff attorney at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C., group that advocates more oversight of the food industry.
"That's something that has really been lacking at the national level," she said.
Northeast Florida isn't tomato-growing country. Most of the state's production takes place in the state's southern region. But the safety of Florida's tomatoes affects consumers from coast to coast. Almost all Florida tomatoes are sold as fresh produce, whether in the produce section of a supermarket or a tomato slice on a hamburger.
And when it comes to tomatoes sold as fresh produce, Florida is the king from December through May when it accounts for virtually all the domestically grown tomatoes in the fresh market, according to the tomato industry statistics.
Contaminated with E. coli, the California-grown spinach poisoned at least 205 people and led to three deaths in 26 states.
Florida's huge tomato industry hasn't been rocked with a comparable outbreak.
But this year, tomato growers joined the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services in pushing for state oversight that would send state inspectors for the first time to farms and packing plants.
The Legislature approved a bill giving inspection power to the department, now in the midst of writing regulations that would take effect next summer.
About 12 percent of food-borne illness stem from eating produce, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Though fresh produce is a vitamin-rich part of a healthy diet, it often is eaten raw, so there is no heat or pressure-packing step that kills harmful bacteria and viruses when they contaminate produce.
Sending inspectors to farms would fill a dangerous gap in the nation's food safety program, said Sarah Klein, staff attorney at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C., group that advocates more oversight of the food industry.
"That's something that has really been lacking at the national level," she said.
Northeast Florida isn't tomato-growing country. Most of the state's production takes place in the state's southern region. But the safety of Florida's tomatoes affects consumers from coast to coast. Almost all Florida tomatoes are sold as fresh produce, whether in the produce section of a supermarket or a tomato slice on a hamburger.
And when it comes to tomatoes sold as fresh produce, Florida is the king from December through May when it accounts for virtually all the domestically grown tomatoes in the fresh market, according to the tomato industry statistics.
