United Fresh President and CEO Tom Stenzel urged new FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg to support a commodity-specific approach to future produce safety standards during a meeting at FDA headquarters on Monday, June 15. Commissioner Hamburg invited a number of food trade association leaders to meet with her and her senior staff to share their recommendations on top priorities as she begins her service at FDA.

"This was an important opportunity to personally convey to the new Commissioner the fact that only a handful of produce commodities have been linked to the majority of foodborne illness - that's where FDA needs to focus to maximize public health benefit, and avoid adding needless burdens to other sectors without any food safety benefit," Stenzel said.

"I also had the chance to ask Dr. Hamburg to look specifically at improving FDA's risk communications, as it's critical not to scare consumers away from healthy fruits and vegetables that we need to eat for better health.  When I told her that the entire spinach outbreak in 2006 had been linked to only one day’s production from one small farm, and yet national spinach consumption is still down almost three years later, she appreciated first-hand the importance of better risk communication."