Dear Produce Industry Members

Today, United Fresh Produce Association and Produce Marketing Association sent a joint letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), requesting a meeting between industry associations and government officials, including the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In a letter to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, United Fresh President Tom Stenzel and PMA President Bryan Silbermann said: “In the rare but critical cases where outbreaks do occur, we simply must do a better job to remove any threat to public health as soon as humanly possible, and isolate potential problems quickly to ensure ongoing consumer confidence in the vast supply of healthy, fresh produce available across the country.”

The associations called for a meeting to explore solutions to speed and streamline outbreak identification and management, noting that with government’s expertise in outbreak identification and industry’s expertise in understanding the produce supply chain, crisis management systems should be reviewed in advance of outbreak investigations, rather than have industry and government reinvent the process each time an outbreak occurs. 

“Nothing is more important to the produce industry than delivering to consumers the safest, healthiest and most nutritious fresh produce possible,” the letter stated. “No one in public health nor industry can be satisfied with an outbreak that went undetected for so long, nor a traceback investigation that has left consumers scared about the safety of all fresh tomatoes and will likely cost more than $100 million to tomato growers, packers and retailers whose produce was never contaminated.  We simply must work together to do better.”

You can read the letter at either association’s tomato outbreak Web page.

If you have questions, please contact Amy Philpott, vice president, communiations at United Fresh, at 202-303-3400 ext. 425.