Food Safety Scares and the Repercussions on the Agricultural Industry

Since 2006, food safety scares have been increasing on a regular basis. Whether it is E coli-tainted spinach, salmonella in tomatoes or occurrences of food borne illnesses, people have grown more wary of what food they eat. There have been some illnesses and deaths resulting from these food safety scares. There is also the constant battle over genetically modified food and organically grown food. This was most evident when the United States experienced the largest meat recall resulted from concerns with at a processing plant. Do not forget the tainted pharmaceuticals and pet food that resulted in several human and animal deaths.

Numerous hearings and proposals have been made in conjunction with the FDA with the intention of making safety standards stricter. Aside from the medical concern caused in consumers, food safety scares are a financial concern to the agricultural and food service industries that are often forgotten about.

The question now is has the average consumer been scared too often where they are willing to permanently forgo purchasing a particular item. Even when it was determined the food safety scare was not fact based but rather created by speculation.

To see the wide spread affects of food safety scares, you do not need to look further than the recent salmonella outbreak that was potentially attributed to plum or roma tomatoes.

Since the first outbreak of salmonella April, the food safety scare of roma tomatoes have created such panic and confusion in consumers, many have opted to change their eating habits permanently for fear of getting sick. As a result of the decline in tomato consumption, several states where tomatoes are a major crop have felt the impact. Sales of California roma tomatoes have dropped by more than forty percent since the food safety scare. This decrease in sales will have a huge negative effect on the state of California who produces roughly 1 billion tomatoes or approximately thirty percent of the tomatoes in the United States market.