Introspection also needed

I was reading the Produce Pundit yesterday and saw one letter to Jim that was critical of repeated attacks on the FDA, suggesting that PP was putting industry protection ahead of consumer protection.

Of course, Jim begged to differ, and was critical the lack of specific detail in the complaint.

I myself have been critical of the FDA, and in the Now or Never post I said that is time for FDA to change their advice to consumers and come clean with the status of their investigation.

Yet I agree with Jim's critic that there is a danger in the reflex action of being hypercritical of the FDA while ignoring areas the industry needs to step it up.

Specifically - in the context of the outbreak - I want to know more about the repacker practice of co-mingling tomatoes of different origin. How common is this practice and are tomato-specific supply chain food safety guidelines now under development forcefully addressing this issue? Perhaps one of the industry's own practices - not the inadequacy of the FDA - contributed most to the delays in finding an answer to the source of the tainted tomatoes.

Secondly, how close are we to workable traceability systems, both within the tomato category and throughout the fresh produce industry? The steering committee for the of the Produce Traceability Initiative met in Chicago yesterday, and what they say about a timeline for industry wide traceability will be closely watched. As I said in this post, the clock is ticking on the industry's efforts and it won't be long before Congress steps into the breach on this issue.