North America Tomato Industry Reeling: Growers

Reuters ^ | Jun 10, 2008 | Jane Sutton

[kellynla]

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida's tomato industry is in "complete collapse" and growers in California and Mexico are having trouble selling their crops as U.S. regulators hunt the source of a salmonella outbreak linked to certain tomato varieties, growers said on Tuesday.

In Florida, the No. 1 U.S. tomato producer, $40 million worth of tomatoes will rot unless the U.S. Food and Drug Administration quickly traces the source of the outbreak and clears the state's produce, an industry official said.

"We've had to stop packing, stop picking," said Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange.

"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," Brown said.

[pfflier]

Some websites indicate bird and bird products carry salmonella. It's as good a theory as any. It still points to surface contamination with the tomatoes, at growing, handling or processing.

In any case, I miss my pico de gallo.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Yes it is of interest, thank you for the ping.

Amazing what they do to our food.

[The Ghost of Rudy McRomney]

Local news said tonight all OheilO tomatoes are safe.

[brytlea]

Yes, salmonella makes me think of birds for sure. I have a cast iron stomach, but I’ve always been a little bit “Mr. Monk” in the kitchen, and we have not ever had any sort of major food poisoning (I say major because I think a lot of *stomach flu* is really mild food poisoning). I’m not sure you can have a resistance to honest to goodness salmonella if you get a good enough dose. Maybe I’m wrong.

susie