Overseeing wholesale markets

What does strong federal oversight of produce safety look like at the wholesale market level? I'm not sure, but I have a feeling that the folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest might have an opinion. I went to the CSPI site today to look for the testimony of CSPI at the FDA's produce safety hearing. I didn't find the remarks, but I did see the link to the March 25 Dateline report on the 7th Street wholesale market in L.A.

The video of the Dateline segment is featured on a CSPI page found here.

From NBC's Web site is this from the transcript of that feature:

Caroline Smith De Waal, a consumer advocate from the center for science in the public interest, says wholesale produce markets might be a weak link in the food chain.
Smith De Waal: Consumers aren’t really aware of all the people who might be touching produce on its way to their table.
Starting last fall, we went undercover with hidden cameras, at the 7th Street Market, where week after week, we found filthy conditions—like workers dumping trash wherever they pleased or picking up cucumbers off the sludgy ground, and selling them like they’re clean.
We found produce stored right next to the porta-potties and next to garbage dumpsters which are crawling with rats—rats that feast on the markets fruits and vegetables.
NBC (on hidden camera): Are there rats?
Worker: Oh big ones. Boy, they love it in here.
Jeff Nelken, a forensic food safety expert, found these conditions inexcusable.

Jeffrey Nelken, food safety expert: Rats carry disease. As they walk on top of the food or they take a bite out of it, they are leaving their bacteria and virus behind.

But this was perhaps the biggest health hazard we saw, water spilling out of pipes that smelled like raw sewage. The water was splashing right onto boxes of produce.
De Waal: The conditions in that market really look like turn of the century.

We took water samples from the market and had them analyzed at a lab. What did they find in that water touching fruits and vegetables? Extremely high levels of E. coli, fecal coliform, and listeria, which can all cause food poisoning—and can’t always be washed off.
So where does this possibly contaminated produce end up?

Later in the report...

Smith De Waal: Wholesale produce markets need to be inspected regularly... this is vital to ensure that conditions like this don’t exist in other cities.
The owner and manager of the 7th Street Market are now facing criminal charges for multiple health and safety code violations. A spokesperson for the market tells us they're surprised by the charges because they've cleaned things up.

TK: While it would be an unfair exaggeration to say wholesale produce markets of today resemble their "turn of the century" likeness, we all know markets that look like they came from the 1970s. How produce safety regulations touch the wholesale market - and what adjustments must be made - will be a compelling story line in coming years.