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FDA Clears Bay Area Tomatoes; Harvesting Stopped In S. Florida

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By MICHAEL SASSO and JEFF PATTERSON

The Tampa Tribune News Channel 8

Published: June 11, 2008

TAMPA - Food-safety experts can't yet rule out all Florida-grown tomatoes as the culprit behind the recent nationwide salmonella outbreak.

However, the federal government has at least cleared tomatoes from the Tampa Bay area and from North Florida of responsibility, said Bob Spencer, a board member of the Florida Tomato Committee who said he was in touch with federal regulators late Tuesday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had not yet cleared other tomato-producing regions in Florida, such as Immokalee and Homestead, Spencer said.

For consumers, this means that any Florida tomatoes reaching store shelves at this point are not linked to the salmonella scare that has hit the West and Midwest. Spencer said that's because the tomatoes being harvested currently are from the Ruskin and Palmetto areas and from Quincy in North Florida, all areas that have been cleared.

Although the Immokalee and Homestead areas potentially could have caused the outbreak in April, harvesting in those areas has stopped, Spencer said.

An FDA official confirmed in an e-mail late Tuesday afternoon that not all areas of Florida had been cleared, but gave no further details.

Outbreak Hurts Mexican Growers

Tomatoes from Mexico, a major tomato producer, also have not been cleared, Spencer said. Retailers are required to post country of origin either on the vegetables or on store signage, he said.

On Tuesday, a major Mexican tomato-growers' association said U.S. importers had stopped buying their winter tomatoes.

The outbreak is hurting Mexican growers because they can't sell their crops to U.S. buyers, said Mario Robles, a spokesman for the Sinaloa state Tomato Growers Association, which ships 44 percent of all Mexican tomatoes to the United States and Canada.

Instead, growers along Mexico's Pacific Coast are rerouting their tomatoes to Mexican markets, where they will be sold at a lower price.

The FDA's action Tuesday will allow the Bay area's tomato growers to resume shipping the tomato varieties at issue, the red plum, red Roma and red round tomatoes. Varieties of those tomatoes harvested before April 15 are suspected of causing the salmonella outbreak.

Other types of tomatoes, including grape, cherry and those attached to the vine, were never suspected of being the cause.

Among local supermarket chains, Lakeland-based Publix Super Markets expects to start stocking Florida-grown tomatoes today, said Publix spokeswoman Shannon Patten.

Tampa-based Sweetbay Supermarket said it would wait to see the FDA's pronouncement before deciding when to restock the tomatoes, spokeswoman Nicole LeBeau said.

That news couldn't come soon enough for some growers.

"We're losing product by the day that are left in the field," said Tony DiMare, president of one of the state's largest growers, a family-owned company that has operated 80 years in Ruskin.

The tomato industry nationwide has suffered significant financial damage in the week or 10 days since salmonella concerns first were raised, DiMare said. It includes lost income for field workers and lost revenue from sales at the packing house and distribution level.

"There's no doubt in my mind the damage that's been done ... will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars when this is over with," DiMare said.

Tomatoes represent a $500 million to $600 million a year industry in Florida. Estimates for the losses in Florida alone are $40 million.

So far, there have been 167 recorded cases of salmonella poisoning nationwide related to the tainted tomatoes, including 23 hospitalizations. Researchers are still trying to determine where the tainted tomatoes came from, but as of Tuesday had ruled out tomatoes from 19 states, including major producers such as California, as well as seven other states.

Florida Eager To Be Cleared

Florida has been eager to join the list of states free of responsibility for the outbreak. Leaders of the Florida Tomato Committee, an Orlando-based body that markets and regulates tomato production in much of Florida, were in constant conference calls with federal and state regulators about the issue Tuesday. They have also hired at least one public relations firm to help deal with the fallout from the salmonella outbreak and convince the public and media that Florida tomatoes are safe.

DiMare, the tomato grower, noted that the salmonella outbreak was concentrated in New Mexico, Texas and Arizona, as well as in Illinois, from April 23 to May 27.

"Look where those tomatoes are being sourced from," DiMare said. "It's not from Florida. In fact, the sourcing of products in those states is coming from Mexico."

He added, "We were shipping tomatoes from the middle of October until last week when this announcement was made, and there's not one reported case in the state of Florida or our four largest cities in the East Coast of the United States."

On Tuesday, one consumer, Ana Abraham, had chosen to shop at a Palmetto roadside stand instead of a supermarket nearby.

"I just figured this is safer than Publix, and Publix is right across the street from me," Abraham said.

Heriberto Hernandez, owner of the stand, welcomed the attention businesses like his are getting.

"These tomatoes are local tomatoes," Hernandez said, "and everybody is coming over here to buy these tomatoes, and I know they're good because I eat it all the time."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. Reporter Michael Sasso can be reached at (813) 259-7865 or msasso@tampatrib.com.

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