Pundit’s Mailbag — Was New Zealand Tomato Industry Tarnished By Bad Press?
We started out with Salmonella And Tomatoes Linked In New Mexico, then in quick succession we did three separate special issues: SPECIAL REPORT: Tomato/Salmonella Outbreak…Insights and Analysis plus SPECIAL REPORT: As Tomato/Salmonella Outbreak Expands, Government Agencies Require More Scrutiny and SPECIAL REPORT: Tomato/Salmonella Source List Narrows But Some Regions Ruined. The coverage brought this letter […]
Pundit’s Mailbag —
Not Just Growers Affected
Salmonella And Tomatoes Linked In New Mexico was the title we gave to the kick-off piece of our coverage of the current crisis. This piece was quickly followed up with three special editions: SPECIAL REPORT: Tomato/Salmonella Outbreak…Insights and Analysis SPECIAL REPORT: As Tomato/Salmonella Outbreak Expands, Government Agencies Require More Scrutiny SPECIAL REPORT: Tomato/Salmonella Source List […]
Baja Growers Denied Fair Access…
Building Case For WTO
Our piece, Free Baja, along with the accompanying interview, Andrew & Williamson Hit Hard By FDA’s Mexican Tomato Ban, was almost unanimously embraced. Except by the FDA, which agrees in concept but has vaguely asserted “complication” in the matter. As best as we determine, the “complication” is this: FDA has close working relationships with the […]
FDA’s Timeline Hard To Swallow
Perhaps the most shocking line in this week of releases and statements was the line included in Florida’s press release regarding the placing of currently producing Florida counties on the “not implicated” list: FDA’s website is updated in the evening and will reflect the change. What could more perfectly illustrate the lack of urgency FDA […]
Pundit’s Mailbag — FDA’s
Disconnect With Media
Salmonella And Tomatoes Linked In New Mexico was the first piece we wrote regarding this outbreak. Then came our two special editions. First, SPECIAL REPORT: Tomato/Salmonella Outbreak…Insights and Analysis and second, SPECIAL REPORT II: As Tomato/Salmonella Outbreak Expands, Government Agencies Require More Scrutiny. All this coverage brought this request: As an executive in the produce […]
FDA Adds 19 Florida
Counties To ‘Safe’ List
The new information from FDA is in. As we talk about here, there was a lot of sloppy journalism yesterday in which consumer and trade editors did not accurately report what was happening. The story is that product from 19 Florida counties has been added to the “safe” list: • Charlotte • Citrus • DeSoto […]
Press Misses The Mark
The journalism surrounding this Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak and tomatoes has been horrid. Partly this is because the FDA has been so confusing and irrational. Initially the warning only applied to people who lived in New Mexico and Texas. Then it applied to everyone. Then it only applied to production from some places, while other places […]
Andrew & Williamson Hit Hard
By FDA’s Mexican Tomato Ban
Just yesterday, in a piece we entitled, FDA Undercuts Buyer-Aligned Risk-Based Systems, we reprinted a portion of a letter that Mark Munger of Andrew & Williamson sent us during the spinach crisis. That piece was entitled, Pundit’s Mailbag — Insights From A Conscientious Grower and focused on Andrew & Williamson’s experience, working with Darden, in […]
Free Baja
With the FDA finally showing some modicum of common sense, it has at last declared the obvious — those districts of Florida that were not producing at the time of the last outbreak are not implicated in the outbreak. It is such a ridiculous thing to have to say. There is simply no excuse that […]
Pundit’s Mailbag — Assume Product Delivered ‘Dirty’???
In the midst of the spinach crisis, we received a piece we ran under the title, Pundit’s Mailbag — Framers Are Not The Cause Of Food Safety Problems. The thesis was simple: farmers were expected to deliver dirty product and it was the job of processing plants in the fresh-cut industry to clean it up. […]
