Statement of

Martha R. Roberts

University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences

On Behalf of Reginald L. Brown

Executive Vice President, Florida Tomato Exchange

For the

U.S. House of Representatives

Agriculture Committee, Subcommittee for Horticulture and Organic
Agriculture

May 15, 2007

My name is Martha Roberts, Personal Assistant to the Director of the
Florida Experiment Station who is also the Dean for Research of the
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of
Florida. I am here today representing Reggie Brown, Executive Vice
President of the Florida Tomato Exchange. I have worked in the food
safety arena for over 35 years and I have been working diligently with
the Florida tomato industry over the past few years as they worked to
formulate and implement food safety practices. When Mr. Brown was out of
the country today I was asked to represent him.

The fresh tomato industry in Florida is the largest in the United States
and supplies 45 to 50% of all domestic tomatoes to American consumers.
The Florida industry actively responded on several fronts after they
received a letter in 2004 directed from FDA/CFSAN to growers, packers
and shippers expressing FDA's concerns about fresh lettuce and fresh
tomatoes. Not only did Florida work to respond; the Florida Tomato
Exchange also worked with other tomato groups throughout North America
as a member of North American Tomato Trade Working Group (NATTWG)
including the U.S., Canada and Mexico to address these concerns.
Currently we are working with the Food Safety Division of Florida
Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (the regulatory agency
in Florida responsible for food safety) to establish a mandatory state
regulation of food safety for tomatoes in Florida. The State Legislature
passed the needed legislation and it awaits the Governor's signature.
This mandatory regulatory program will be the first of its kind in the
country. These regulations are being drawn from a number of guidelines
including, the 1998 *FDA Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards
for Fruit & Vegetables*; the 2006 NATTWG: *Commodity Specific Food
Safety Guidelines for the Fresh Tomato Supply Chain and others*.

To accomplish this, we have actively worked with FDA, USDA and FDACS and
others across the country to actively explore and aggressively proceed
in our efforts to establish the most effective science-based regulations
to address the food safety risk factors for fresh tomatoes. Regulations
developed with sound science and common sense proved the best solution.

The main goal must be to prevent food borne illness. Addressing this
issue through science based sound regulation allows for collaborative
efforts to maintain public confidence in the purchase and consumption of
fresh tomatoes. The impact of the loss of public confidence is extremely
high and will result in injury to all segments of the public and the
tomato industry.

Every segment of the supply chain must evaluate their specific risk
factors and the necessary policies and procedures to manage them. While
the risks are universal, the mitigating processes and procedures must be
established with consideration for specific production, packing and
distribution systems and geographical areas as they exist throughout the
entire supply chain. Practices that pose significant risk of microbial
contamination should be evaluated and mitigation practices established
to reduce them. Responsible production, packing and handling procedures
based on guidance documents available to the industry result in
virtually all tomatoes posing no risk to public health. The focus needs
to be on the relatively rare exceptions when microbial contamination
occurs. And, most importantly we need the science -- we need the
research on which to base these decisions.

The establishment of uniform science-based risk evaluations and
mitigation processes and procedures throughout the entire supply chain
is essential to providing the safest food supply system possible.
Nationally mandated and monitored regulation presents the best
opportunity for accomplishing the goal of overall risk reduction. Such a
program must be developed based on commodity specific systems that
implements risk reducing process and procedures that address legitimate
science based food safety concerns. The industry in both Florida and
California has begun those efforts to develop functional Good
Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and Best Management Practices (BMPs) for
tomatoes.

Tomatoes, due to the unique market structure of repacking and
distribution, present real challenges to the traceback process. Rapid
accurate traceback is essential to all interest and should be pursued
aggressively when outbreaks occur. Mandatory traceback capability is the
only acceptable solution to this issue. Positive Lot Identification
(PLI) throughout the system that minimizes commingling is a part of the
Florida program and must become the requirement if traceback is to be
used to limit injury to the public and to the industry. Rapid use of
this tool can provide valuable information on the specific route through
which microbial contamination occurs.

Mandatory compliance to GAPs and BMPs through a national program of
regulation and regulatory oversight can significantly enhance the risk
reduction provided by these practices. The risk for fresh tomatoes will
not go to zero with current technology but significant reductions can be
achieved with such an effort. Direct farm marketing of small quantities
of tomatoes poses a very limited risk to public health. Such activities
could be carefully exempted from portions of such regulations to avoid
unreasonable impacts provided significant circumvention would not be
encouraged. After all, it is fundamentally in the interest of all
participants in the industry to produce the safest tomatoes possible.

To enable this cooperative effort with other states producing tomatoes,
the University of Florida cosponsored a Tomato Food Safety Forum in
November 2006 in cooperation with the Florida tomato industry. We
brought together the federal regulators, the Commissioners of Health and
Agriculture as well as researchers and industry in the 7 main tomato
producing states in the eastern U.S. We had the owners and principals of
over 90% of the U.S. fresh tomato market participating. We are following
through on recommendations of this forum: the Association of Food and
Drug Officials has been asked to form a group to establish a national
uniform model code for produce safety; we have increased communication
and reports of applicable published scientific research to all parties
involved (see http://research.ifas.ufl.edu/tomato); and the University
of Florida held a 2 day workshop with the Joint Institute of Food Safety
and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN) in Maryland in late February where
researchers around the country identified and prioritized the gaps in
scientific information that need to be filled to enable us to protect
the tomato food supply (http://www.jifsan.umd.edu/tomato_wkp2007.htm).
For the record, I would like to add the ten *High Priority Research
Needs* from the Tomato Safety Food Safety Research Needs Workshop held
in College Park, Maryland, February 21-22, 2007.

In summary, the Florida tomato industry, along with other tomato groups
such as the California Tomato Farmers are proceeding on a path to
improve the overall food safety environment for tomatoes. This can be
accomplished with good science; common sense and cooperation of
government and industry. I appreciate the cooperation and ongoing
discussions with both USDA and FDA on this critical issue. While we
strongly support federal efforts to mandate regulation, in Florida we
are not waiting for these to develop but are actively enhancing the food
safety of the tomatoes we produce. Thank you for the opportunity to
express our thoughts on these important issues.