The Food and Drug Administration called on produce processors to install monitoring systems to prevent contamination, but declined to make the recommendations mandatory—at least for now.
    At a hearing before the agriculture subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, held in Madison, Wisconsin on March 12, a representative of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said the FDA recommendations “are too little, too late to prevent the very real problems we are facing.”
    And the president of the United Fresh Produce Assocation called for nationwide mandatory regulations that would apply not only to processors but also to growers.
    Both industry and consumer groups are anxious to clean up the fresh produce industry and restore public trust in fresh produce. Industry officials say that spinach and lettuce sales are down 20% since the E. coli outbreaks last fall. A survey by the Food Policy Institute at Rutgers University found that 60% of those surveyed had not resumed eating fresh spinach since the outbreak.