Florida’s Abundance of Food Safety Initiatives

With HLB, yellowing usually spreads throughout the tree over several years, more quickly on young trees, and affected trees may show twig dieback, causing productivity to decline within a few years, Dr. Dewdney points out. “Fruit are often few in number, small, may be lopsided with a curved central core, and fail to color properly,” she says. “Many fruit drop prematurely from afflicted trees. The affected fruit often contain aborted seeds and have a salty bitter taste.”

Food safety is important to the Florida citrus grower, packer, and processor, but it’s not the story dominating as the industry struggles to find a way to survive with citrus greening, Dr. Danyluk says. “As a result of HLB, citrus production in Florida is well down, almost [by] half, from a decade ago,” she points out.

Indeed, on April 10, 2006, the NASS Florida Field Office reported the revised 2004-2005 all orange production at 149.8 million 90-lb. boxes, Erick says, noting that this particular season was affected by Hurricanes Charley (Aug. 13, 2004), Frances (Sept. 5, 2004), and Jeanne (Sept. 26, 2004).

Revised production for the 2005-2006 season was 147.7 million boxes which includes 75.0 million boxes of non-Valencia oranges (early, midseason, Navel, and Temple varieties) and 72.7 million boxes of Valencia oranges. This season was also affected by a hurricane, Hurricane Wilma, which entered Florida on Oct. 24, 2005, Erick adds.

“The effects of HLB on the citrus industry are difficult to exaggerate and the industry is still struggling to find an effective and economical way to combat HLB and the Asian citrus psyllid, the vector,” Dr. Dewdney emphasizes. “The citrus industry is likely to change from the small farm industry that it has historically been to more consolidated holdings as a result of the disease.”

Hellooo…Tomatoes Count, Too

Oranges may seem like the big cheese in Florida, but tomatoes—however underpublicized or underappreciated—are actually a huge deal in the Sunshine State, no matter how you slice ’em or dice ’em.

Florida is the second largest producer of tomatoes in the U.S. (after California) and is the largest producer of tomatoes for the fresh market, accounting for about 50 percent of all fresh tomatoes produced domestically, including virtually all the fresh-market, field-grown tomatoes in the nation from October through June each year, according to the Florida Tomato Committee, a Federal Marketing Order that funds research, development projects, and marketing promotions that focus on maximizing Florida tomato movement.

Approximately 31,500 Florida acres, in almost every southern county, are under cultivation for the fresh tomato market.

Long established as a berry, a subset of fruit, the botanically unique tomato is regarded as a vegetable, culinarily speaking, because of its savory flavor. In fact, in 1893, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled, for the purpose of levying a tariff, that the tomato was a vegetable.

With a total crop value at the farm level exceeding $619 million, Florida ships more than 1.1 billion pounds of fresh tomatoes annually throughout the U.S., as well as to Canada and abroad. In fact, tomatoes comprise nearly one-third of the total value of all fresh vegetables produced in Florida.

The newsworthy Florida tomato industry, believed to have started in the 1870s, has a great story to tell in terms of reacting positively to food safety issues, Dr. Danyluk says. “Florida tomatoes were actually the first commodity in the U.S. to implement state regulations related to food safety,” she boasts.

“The state self-regulation of Florida tomatoes story dates back to the early 2000s when there were a number of outbreaks of Salmonella all linked to fresh tomato consumption, about 14 such outbreaks from 2000 to 2006,” Dr. Danyluk begins. “While not all of these outbreaks were related directly to Florida tomatoes, they certainly indicated there was a potential problem. This inspired the Florida tomato industry to make food safety a top priority, so much so that the industry embraced a proactive approach and pushed for a state food safety regulation.”