FDA Implements Initiative to Reduce Tomato-Related Foodborne Illnesses

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will begin a multi-year Tomato Safety Initiative to reduce the incidence of tomato-related foodborne illness in the United States. 

“Produce is an important part of a healthy diet and FDA wants to improve its safety by better understanding the causes of foodborne illness and by promoting more effective methods of safe food production, delivery and preparation,” said Robert Brackett, director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in a release. “This initiative is part of a strategy to reduce foodborne illness by focusing food safety assessments on specific products, practices, and growing areas that have been found to be problematic in the past.”

The initiative, part of FDA’s Produce Safety Action Plan, will be completed by FDA and state health and agriculture departments in Florida and Virginia. Several universities and members of the produce industry also are part of the effort. The project will begin during this year’s growing season for Virginia in the summer and for Florida in the fall.

During the past decade, the consumption of fresh and fresh-cut tomatoes has been linked to 12 different outbreaks of foodborne illness in the United States. Those outbreaks include 1,840 confirmed cases of illness, the agency said. The majority of these outbreaks have been traced to products from Florida and the eastern shore of Virginia; however, tomato-associated outbreaks also have been traced to tomatoes from California, Georgia, Ohio and South Carolina.

Officials also will work to identify practices or conditions that potentially lead to product contamination, which will allow FDA to continue to improve its guidance and policy on tomato safety, the agency said. The initiative will evaluate the need for additional produce safety research, and industry education and outreach.

FDA investigators in coordination with their respective state counterparts will visit tomato farms and packing facilities in Florida and Virginia to assess food safety practices and use of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs). During their visits, officials also will evaluate a variety of environmental factors, including irrigation water, wells, procedures for mixing chemicals, drought and flooding events, and animal proximity to growing fields.