Florida's tomato industry is in "complete collapse" and growers in California and Mexico are having trouble selling their crops as US regulators hunt the source of a salmonella outbreak linked to certain tomato varieties, growers said on Tuesday.
In Florida, the No 1 US tomato producer, $40 million worth of tomatoes will rot unless the US Food and Drug Administration quickly traces the source of the outbreak and clears the state's produce, an industry official said. "We've had to stop packing, stop picking," said Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange.
"The stuff that should have been harvested over the weekend won't survive more than another day or so. The stuff we have in storage is getting riper every minute and at some point it will have to be disposed of," Brown said. The FDA warned US consumers on Saturday that the outbreak was linked to eating certain raw red plum, red Roma, and red round tomatoes, and products containing those tomatoes. Major restaurant and grocery chains stopped selling those varieties, and some stopped selling all raw tomatoes entirely.
US growers produced $1.28 billion worth of tomatoes last year, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Florida produces an annual crop valued at $500 million to $700 million, and supplies more than 90 percent of the nation's tomatoes this time of year, Brown said. The FDA has said that it is safe to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached but those account for only a tiny portion of the industry. The FDA has said it does not know where the contaminated tomatoes originated. The infections have struck most often in New Mexico and Texas.
The FDA has put California on the list of suppliers not linked to the outbreak. But some supermarkets still rejected tomatoes from that state, which is the No 2 US producer with $400 million in annual sales. The FDA said there had been 145 reported cases as of Saturday, including at least 23 hospitalisations, related to the outbreak since mid-April. The infections were caused by Salmonella Saintpaul, an uncommon type of the bacteria.
Salmonella bacteria are frequently responsible for food-borne illnesses. Symptoms generally appear within 12 to 72 hours after eating infected food and include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.