Thread: Florida tomato industry in "complete collapse"

Florida tomato industry in "complete collapse"
Tue Jun 10, 2008 11:15am EDT
By Jane Sutton

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida's tomato industry is in "complete collapse" and $40 million worth of tomatoes will rot unless federal regulators quickly trace the source of a salmonella outbreak and clear the state's produce, an industry official said on Tuesday.

"We probably have $40 million worth of product we can't sell. We've had to stop packing, stop picking," said Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Saturday warned U.S. consumers that the outbreak was linked to eating certain raw red plum, red Roma, and red round tomatoes, and products containing these tomatoes. Several major restaurant and grocery chains have stopped selling those varieties.

"It fundamentally shut down the industry," he said. "The stuff that should have been harvested over the weekend won't survive more than another day or so. The stuff we have in storage is getting riper every minute and at some point it will have to be disposed of."

Florida is the largest tomato-producing state, with a crop valued at $500 million to $700 million annually, he said. The state produces more than 90 percent of the nation's tomatoes this time of year, Brown said.

The FDA has said that it is safe to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached. But those varieties account for only a tiny portion of the industry, Brown said.

The FDA has said it does not know where the contaminated tomatoes originated.

The infections have struck most often in New Mexico and Texas.

"We're very interested in seeing the FDA bring resolution to this and also would like to express concern for those who've fallen ill," Brown told Reuters.

The FDA said there had been 145 reported cases as of Saturday, including at least 23 hospitalizations, related to the outbreak since mid-April. The infections were caused by Salmonella Saintpaul, an uncommon type of the bacteria.

Salmonella bacteria are frequently responsible for food-borne illnesses. Symptoms generally appear within 12 to 72 hours after eating infected food and include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

(Editing by Jim Loney and Matthew Lewis)


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http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/ ... 5920080610

No sympathy from here... i am doing my best to hit these industrys that hire Illegal Immigrants by boycotting all I can

Nothing like hitting Big Business in the pocket book to get their attention

Congress mandated "Country of Origin" labeling on agricultural products several years ago, but of course the FDA has never implemented the regulations due to lobbying from the growers and indifference from the Bush Administration. Such labeling, country of origin and state of origin if grown and processed domestically, would make it much more expeditious for the FDA to isolate the source.

Message to the industry:

YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW

June 9, 2008, 11:37PM
Cancer patient had salmonella prior to death
Wife of man says husband fell ill days after eating tomato-based food


By ALLAN TURNER
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

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Many of the nation's most popular restaurant chains have stopped serving most types of raw tomatoes.

McDonald's
The chain has stopped serving sliced tomatoes on its sandwiches. It will continue serving grape tomatoes in its salads because no problems have been linked to that variety.


Outback
The parent company of Outback Steakhouse and Carrabba's stopped serving all raw tomatoes other than grape tomatoes. The company also instructed restaurants to discard salsa containing raw tomatoes.


Burger King
The company has withdrawn raw round red tomatoes from most of its U.S. restaurants.


Also withdrawing tomatoes
• Yum Brands: Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver's, A&W All-American Food

• Darde n Restaurants: Red Lobster, Olive Garden

• Chipotle Mexican Grill

Source: Associated Press
Health officials Monday confirmed that a Houston cancer patient who died after being hospitalized with nausea, diarrhea and high fever had contracted Saintpaul salmonellosis, but stopped short of saying the debilitating illness caused his death.

Salmonella Saintpaul — thought spread by eating some types of raw tomatoes — has sickened 146 people in 16 states. Confirmation that Raul Rivera, 67, also had contracted the disease brings the total of Harris County victims to 15. Fifty-seven Texans have been sickened by the disease.

City health department spokeswoman Kathy Barton said Rivera's death certificate officially attributed his death to lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. But, she added, salmonella poisoning, extremely dangerous for infants, the elderly and cancer patients and others with a depressed immune system, was a contributing factor.

Rivera is thought to be the first person to die in the current outbreak.

Rivera's wife, Barbara, said her husband ate tomatoes during a restaurant meal celebrating good news he had received concerning his cancer treatment. Four other family members who ate tomatoes also became ill.

Meanwhile, McDonalds and Taco Bell joined other restaurant chains in deleting tomatoes from their menus. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has urged consumers to avoid raw Roma, plum and red round tomatoes until the source of the outbreak has been determined.

Cherry, grape and homegrown tomatoes, as well as those sold still attached to the vine, are believed safe.

The FDA said that tomatoes commercially grown in Texas and seven other states do not appear to be the source of contamination.

Florida, which produces about half the nation's commercial tomatoes, has not been cleared. Last year, Florida and Virginia — linked to most of 12 tomato-related salmonella outbreaks in the past decade — were enrolled in a special FDA safety initiative to ensure good food production and handling practices.

Reggie Brown, manager of the Florida Tomato Committee, a trade group, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Barbara Rivera said her husband joined family members in a celebratory meal at a local Mexican restaurant in late May after he was told there was new hope he would survive his cancer. Rivera had already undergone eight chemotherapy and 14 radiation treatments and most of his tumors had shrunk.

Rivera's wife said her husband and four other family members ate pico de gallo, a tomato-based condiment. Two days later Rivera began suffering nausea and diarrhea. For several days he was treated at home with pain relievers and liquids. He was admitted to a hospital six days after the meal.

Rivera died Wednesday. The four others also became ill, Barbara Rivera said, but didn't require hospitalization.

Salmonella Saintpaul — one of 2,500 strains of the bacterium — is relatively rare, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Of 1.4 million salmonellosis cases last year, slightly more than 400 involved the Saintpaul strain.

Nationwide, only about three cases of the Saintpaul strain were reported in the first six months of 2007.

The CDC, however, estimated that 38 unreported cases occur for every instance brought to the attention of a physician.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/chr ... 28360.html

It's an expensive,deadly, self-inflicted lesson because someone, to save money, omitted sanitary practices in the growing, havesting, packaging or shipping of tomatoes.

Not taken into the cost, is the pain and suffering and medical expenses of those made ill.

Am sure next year we will be hearing tomatoes rotten in the fields due to lack of harvesters.

LET THE TOMATOES ROT IN THE FIELD. ITS BETTER THAN HAVING PEOPLE DYING FROM EATING THEM.