Tomato Growers Seeing Red

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Some companies have recall insurance, but they're not likely to collect unless there is a recall -- not a warning or an advisory.

This isn't the first time produce growers looked to Congress for help with a food-safety issue.

Even though the 2006 bagged spinach recall involving Dole Food and Natural Selection Foods was more contained, growers took a $100 million hit, according to the United Fresh Produce Association.

Spinach growers got a financial-aid provision part way through Congress but didn't succeed.

In March 1989, the U.S. banned the entry of seedless grapes from Chile after two grapes were found to have been contaminated with cyanide, leaving Chilean growers, exporters and importers with millions of dollars in losses. The industry tried to recover about $210 million only to get word four years later that a federal judge ruled that the FDA wasn't responsible because it was doing its job.

"We got no compensation," said Richard Eastes, a California fruit and vegetable consultant who worked for a company affected by the ban. "It was just a bad dream."

Skrzycki is a regulatory columnist with Bloomberg News. She can be reached atcskrzycki@bloomberg.net.

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