Over the next two days Congress will begin to examine the salmonella outbreak, what went wrong in the investigation, and the lessons learned for the future.  At 1:00 p.m. today, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture will hold a hearing focused predominately on traceability aspects of the investigation.  Tomorrow, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will conduct a hearing at 10:00 a.m. that more broadly focuses on flaws in the investigation and lessons learned for the future.

Since the early days of the outbreak, United Fresh has worked with these Congressional committees to have them better understand what was happening throughout the investigation, as well as the consequences to public health, consumer confidence in produce and in government itself, and the financial impact on industry members who had nothing to do with the outbreak.  United President and CEO Tom Stenzel will testify before both Congressional committees today and tomorrow to help Congress focus on fundamental reform and improvement of future outbreak investigations.  A number of other produce industry leaders will also share their views, along with government officials, academia, consumer groups, and others.

Both hearings will be broadcast live on the internet.  To watch or listen to today's hearing, go to the link below and use the audio or video link for 1300 LHOB.

Link: House Agriculture Committee Hearing (Wednesday, July 30, 1:00 p.m. EDT)

To view the Thursday Energy and Commerce Committee Hearing online, use the link below.

Link: House Energy and Commerce Committee Hearing (Thursday July 31, 10:00 a.m. EDT)

These Congressional hearings are an important part of government's process to address an issue that is important to the public and the industry.  Therefore these next two days will allow the industry an opportunity to educate elected officials on what has happened and allow them to process the information they learn through the hearings to make informed policy decisions related to produce food safety.

We will also provide more in-depth coverage of these hearings after tomorrow through the United Fresh website and member communications.