Now or never

The FDA's tomatoes/salmonella traceback - in the context of consumer warnings and pronouncements of "acceptable" shipping regions - has gone on long enough. Of course, for the FDA, there is still work to do, still leads to explore, still teams to send out.

But, in fairness to consumers, grower-shippers, wholesalers, retailers and foodservice operators, I think the time is past to declare it what it must be: inconclusive and unknowable. Unless the agency can identify a farm or packing house within a couple of days, what purpose will continued silence from the agency serve? Unless the agency is bearing down on an concrete answer, their advice to consumers must be revised.

The CDC said in its June 9 update that among the 73 persons who have been interviewed, illnesses began between April 16 and May 27. So the available evidence seems to point to the fact that the threat from product in commercial channels now is passed.

As it is, the FDA's advice is tying decision makers in knots; take tomatoes off the menu, abandon a trusted supplier, destroy perfectly good fruit. Consumers likewise are paralyzed by too much information, with the end result that they either plunge blindly ahead with tomato purchases or shun the category entirely.

Unless there are new and continuing cases of sickness from the salmonella strain linked to tomatoes, the FDA should revise its message soon. In any event, more details must be revealed to industry and the public about the status of the investigation.

Perhaps consumers with compromised immune systems - and the very young or the very old - might be advised for a period of time to refrain from certain types of tomatoes from certain regions that have yet to be cleared.

The FDA may take the opportunity to scold the industry's practices, and that may well be warranted. The industry has seen too much talk and too little action on implementing traceability systems, and the practice of co-mingling of tomatoes from different origins by repackers can't be in the best interests of the public in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak.

In any event, there must be a culmination to this investigation this week. It's now or never time for the FDA.