Produce Industry Gets Proactive as it Recovers from Salmonella Outbreak

8/19/2008

Foodbusinessnews.net

By Stephanie Bloyd

As the fresh produce industry attempts to recoup its losses from the 2008 Salmonella saintpaul outbreak that sickened 1,401 people, companies are turning their attention to winning back profits, as well as customers. Lessons learned from the 2006 spinach E. coli recall are steering the industry down the path to recovery, as it looks to overhaul federal food safety regulations and reconnect with consumers.

Tomato industry losses are estimated at $100 million, and in July growers launched an appeal to Congress to recover damages from the outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) mistakenly targeted tomatoes for the Salmonella illnesses at the start of its investigation, though jalapeño and serrano peppers from Mexico eventually were named as the culprit.

F.D.A. warnings, as well as media reports, prompted consumers to avoid purchasing fresh tomatoes for several months. A Produce Marketing Association (P.M.A.) study conducted June 13-19, just days after the F.D.A. issued its first nationwide warning against eating certain types of tomatoes, found that 88% of the people surveyed were regular consumers of fresh tomatoes, but two-thirds had stopped purchasing tomatoes. And a Harvard School of Public Health study, released just before the first tomato warning, found that 9 in 10 Americans remembered hearing about food recalls in the past two years, while 8 in 10 people who remembered the recalls avoided eating the foods involved in them.

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