**Testimony of Anthony J. DiMare,**

**Vice President of DiMare Homestead Inc., DiMare Ruskin Inc.,**

**and DiMare Johns Island Inc.**

**Before the U.S. House of Representatives**

**Committee on Agriculture,**

**Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture**

**July 30, 2008**

Good afternoon, Chairman Cardoza and members of the subcommittee. My
name is Tony DiMare. I am vice president of DiMare Homestead
Incorporated and DiMare Ruskin Incorporated in Florida, and DiMare Johns
Island Incorporated in South Carolina. I am pleased to have the
opportunity today to address this group.

DiMare Company is an 80-year-old, family-owned produce company that
grows, packs and ships tomatoes and other vegetables from seven states
across the United States. I represent the third generation of my family
to carry on our produce business.

I am a past chairman of the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association and
currently serve on its executive committee and board of directors. I
recently was elected to the United Fresh Produce Association board of
directors. I also serve as president of the Florida Tomato Exchange, and
I am a former chairman of the Florida Tomato Committee and the Florida
Tomato Growers Exchange. I was appointed in 2002 to the inaugural USDA
Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee.

Today I want to speak to you about our company's food safety program,
Florida's new mandatory food safety regulations for tomato production,
and how DiMare Company was affected when the CDC and FDA singled out
tomatoes in the salmonella saintpaul outbreak.

[Food safety and traceability]{.underline}

Food safety is at the forefront of everything we do, day in and day out
at DiMare Company. Not only do our customers demand it; today's
consumers expect that the fresh produce they buy at the supermarket or
eat in a restaurant is safe and nutritious. Simply put, ensuring food
safety is the right thing to do.

From our farms to our packing facilities and distribution centers, the
food safety team at DiMare Company works diligently to ensure all
products are maintained in a food-safe environment at every stage of the
process.

Our stringent internal food safety program includes monthly facility
audits and mock recalls throughout the year. Audits by third-party
companies ensure our program exceeds industry standards. All DiMare
Fresh locations are audited twice a year by the American Institute of
Baking and have received the highest scores possible. Each of our farms
is audited by Primus Labs and Davis Fresh. In addition, we routinely
test our fields, facilities and all water sources for pathogens. We
follow Good Agricultural Practices in our fields and Best Manufacturing
Practices in our packing facilities.

Our company has invested significantly in technology and personnel to
ensure product traceability. All DiMare Company produce can be traced
back to the grower, and all produce originates from either DiMare Farms
or growers who participate in our food safety program.

[Florida's Food Safety Program]{.underline}

Not only is DiMare Company an industry leader in food safety, the state
of Florida is as well. On July 1, Florida became the first state in the
country to adopt a comprehensive food safety program with mandatory
government inspection and audits for tomato handling, production and
packing. Other states have inquired about the program as a model.

The program includes annual registration of all producers, packers and
repackers of tomatoes in Florida. It also requires regulatory
inspections and audits by state inspectors from the Florida Department
of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

[The outbreak]{.underline}

Our industry was shaken to the core in June when the CDC announced that
tomatoes were a suspected source of the salmonella outbreak, and the FDA
issued a broad advisory for all consumers to avoid eating certain types
of tomatoes.

Shipment ground to a halt. Tomatoes were left in the fields, in the
packinghouses and on trucks that were turned away by our customers. More
than a week went by before the FDA cleared 19 Florida counties to ship
tomatoes. By then, however, consumers were too confused and were
reluctant to resume buying tomatoes. Severe losses were incurred all
along the distribution chain. Early on, our sales were down as much as
60 percent, and business has been slow to pick up. Today, our repack
operations are still off by about 20 percent.

Adding to our frustration during the trace-back was the FDA and CDC's
reluctance to turn to industry for help understanding and identifying
distribution channels -- knowledge they clearly lacked. Tapping into
industry expertise early on would have gone a long way in speeding up
the trace-back. More cooperation is clearly needed in the future.

[Conclusion]{.underline}

Even though the FDA has announced that all tomatoes are safe to eat and
has focused its attention on other produce, we urge both the FDA and CDC
to completely clear Florida tomatoes as a potential source of the
outbreak.

In addition, we are calling on these agencies and others to sit down
with industry to determine how the investigation and trace-back process
can be improved. Hard questions need to be asked, and lessons must be
learned from this outbreak so that a similar situation never happens
again.

Looking ahead, we don't know how long it will take for consumer
confidence in fresh tomatoes to rebound. What has transpired over the
past two months is sure to affect our business into next season. As an
industry, we are strongly committed to taking whatever proactive steps
are necessary to ensure Americans know they are consuming the safest,
healthiest and most nutritious fresh produce possible.

Thank you again for the opportunity to address the subcommittee today.