In his presentation to the National Restaurant Association Food Safety Conference on Thursday, United Fresh President Tom Stenzel reinforced the fact that fresh produce is an extraordinarily safe food that restaurants should be confident in increasing on their menus. "Every major public health authority around the world, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control, continues to advise that the risk to health of not consuming an abundant array of fruits and vegetables is far greater than the isolated risk of foodborne illness," he said. Tom went on to talk about specific ways the industry has enhanced food safety practices. He concluded in outlining a series of lessons the government, industry and all stakeholders need to learn from this past summer’s Salmonella outbreak in which tomatoes were incorrectly indicted as the culprit. "We’ve got to bring as much effort now to more effective management of outbreak investigations as we have to implement good agricultural practices," he said. "Prevention always comes first; but public confidence in produce simply cannot be whipsawed with false accusations and speculation every time there’s an outbreak."