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FDA clears Florida and California tomatoes
United States
Wednesday 11 June 2008
The U.S. Food and Drug Agency has cleared fresh Florida tomatoes that are currently being harvested and all California tomatoes in connection with a salmonella scare in the U.S.
The FDA ruling comes as a relief to growers in North America's largest tomato-growing regions. "Investigators are trying to determine if the tomatoes which are affected with the salmonella disease - which they have deemed to be raw red plumb, red roma, and red round tomatoes - if those are domestically grown tomatoes or imported," CNN's Sandra Endo told CTV's Canada AM Wednesday . "It will likely take several more days - if not a few weeks - to determine the absolute source." Since April, more than 165 people in 17 states have fallen ill to food poisoning after consuming foods with tomatoes in it.
New Mexico has seen 62 confirmed cases of the "Saintpaul" bacteria. A 67-year-old Texas cancer patient is believed to be the only death associated with the salmonella poisoning. There are no reported illnesses in Canada. Farmers across the U.S. fear the health scare could end up costing the industry hundreds of millions of dollars.
"Certainly, the economic scare is also very prominent to tomato farmers (in the U.S.)... All the crop and produce has just been sitting there in a warehouse," Endo said.
"A lot of these tomato farmers have already estimated damages to about US$40 million (in Florida)." The Canadian Food Inspection agency says no illnesses have been reported here. Canadian farmers had predicted a rise of business because Canada is not on the FDA's list of areas suspected in the outbreak.
"Basically it's law of supply and demand,'' Kristen Callow, General Manager of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, told the Canadian Press.
Before the Florida tomatoes were cleared by the FDA, Goldfarb said, "Everybody took tomatoes off their sandwiches, took tomatoes out of the stores, they've really taken a hard press on this."
The FDA ruling comes as a relief to growers in North America's largest tomato-growing regions. "Investigators are trying to determine if the tomatoes which are affected with the salmonella disease - which they have deemed to be raw red plumb, red roma, and red round tomatoes - if those are domestically grown tomatoes or imported," CNN's Sandra Endo told CTV's Canada AM Wednesday . "It will likely take several more days - if not a few weeks - to determine the absolute source." Since April, more than 165 people in 17 states have fallen ill to food poisoning after consuming foods with tomatoes in it.
New Mexico has seen 62 confirmed cases of the "Saintpaul" bacteria. A 67-year-old Texas cancer patient is believed to be the only death associated with the salmonella poisoning. There are no reported illnesses in Canada. Farmers across the U.S. fear the health scare could end up costing the industry hundreds of millions of dollars.
"Certainly, the economic scare is also very prominent to tomato farmers (in the U.S.)... All the crop and produce has just been sitting there in a warehouse," Endo said.
"A lot of these tomato farmers have already estimated damages to about US$40 million (in Florida)." The Canadian Food Inspection agency says no illnesses have been reported here. Canadian farmers had predicted a rise of business because Canada is not on the FDA's list of areas suspected in the outbreak.
"Basically it's law of supply and demand,'' Kristen Callow, General Manager of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, told the Canadian Press.
Before the Florida tomatoes were cleared by the FDA, Goldfarb said, "Everybody took tomatoes off their sandwiches, took tomatoes out of the stores, they've really taken a hard press on this."
