Can this go on forever?

Is this industry doomed to be skewered during each news cycle? Now news reports implicate lettuce in the E. coli Taco Bell outbreak. I was doing interviews in the Minneapolis area today, one radio talk show host asked listeners if they were going back to the Taco Bell and Taco John restaurants. Taco John restaurants have also been in the news with an E. coli outbreak. Meanwhile, Calif. Rep. Sam Farr has called for increased research funding for pathogens on produce.

As this food safety crisis extends, I fear most for the impact on fresh cut produce, particularly at food service outlets.

Kansas plain talk

You know the industry is having a rough week when a professor from Kansas State University is saying the fresh produce industry needs to "step up its efforts" to reduce pathogens in the food supply. He doesn't come without credentials, however, despite coming from the breadbasket of the country, not the salad bowl. Douglas Powell is scientific director of the Food Safety Network at Kansas State and worked for ten years to help develop on farm food safety programs for Canadian fresh produce growers