Rush to judgment

Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2008 | 2:07 a.m.

The federal agencies leading the investigation into this summer’s salmonella outbreak took a pounding last week before House committees.

House members and produce industry representatives strongly criticized the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for warning so long about tomatoes as the likely source.

Last week, after having suspected tomatoes since May, the agencies announced they had traced the outbreak to jalapeno and serrano peppers grown on two farms in Mexico.

While holding a tomato in one hand and a jalapeno in the other, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., demanded that the agencies confess to making a mistake for their prolonged tomato warnings.

Even before lawmakers and industry officials had the chance to vent, eight House members from Florida introduced a bill that would provide federal compensation for growers and businesses that had lost money because of the tomato scare.

We understand why growers and other people in the food business would be upset — the nationwide losses in tomato sales are estimated to be as high as $300 million. And we understand when members of Congress reflect the anger of their constituents.

But before the FDA and the CDC are indelibly marked as failures for their early warning about tomatoes, let us ponder just what happened. Eighty-four percent of the people who had contracted salmonella poisoning early in the outbreak told investigators they had eaten tomatoes before falling ill.

Do we really want federal agencies to keep this type of information a secret in future outbreaks, exposing millions of people to risk in order to protect food industries?

And by the way, while tomatoes on the market today have been judged safe, the two farms in Mexico were also sending tomatoes to market at the time of the outbreak. So the possibility exists that tomatoes accounted for some of the sicknesses.

There are, however, other complaints about the agencies that sound truly valid, such as that they did not communicate well with state health agencies and that food-tracking systems are inadequate. David Acheson, head of food safety at the FDA, said a panel of advisers will be appointed to review the salmonella outbreak.

The sooner the panel gets to work, the better.