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Produce Industry Says Consumer Confidence Is Shattered

Washington, D.C.- Nearly 4 months after the first cases of Salmonella were discovered the produce industry is in tatters, and it is still not certain how it first began.

The Food and Drug Administration issued warnings over the course of the investigation that warned against peppers, tomatoes, and caused the produce, fruit and vegetable industry to suffer losses calculated in the millions of dollars.

The numbers of cases from the nations largest ever Salmonella epidemic has now been reduced to the normal number of cases that were present before the outbreak in April.

There have been no new clusters of salmonella cases since the middle of July, and the FDA thinks that the outbreak is now over.

The industry estimates that it has cost somewhere from $130 million dollars to over $250 dollars in lost produce, sales and other damages from the intensive investigation.

Despite cooperation the produce industry has suffered greatly from the different warnings. There was never any definite evidence against tomatoes, but despite this the tomato industry was one of the main produce items affected, with a long several week warning issued at one point by the FDA.

Many members of the produce industry are angry, and believe that the FDA did not use sound scientific means in issuing their warnings.

There were several warnings, and each new suspicion shifted attention from one type of produce to another, from Tomatoes, to Jalapeno peppers, to Serrano peppers, to cilantro, and other types of produce.