The Industry That Cares Enough to Get It Right

There’s no use pretending this was an easy year for fresh produce. An outbreak shook consumer confidence in the very products we know to be the healthiest on the planet, and the effects rippled far beyond the source.

The data tells the story plainly. A CBS News poll in late July found 40 percent of Americans said they were buying or eating less produce because of it, with even sharper drops among women and older consumers. Trust was shaken, and I won’t wave that away.

But I want to challenge a conclusion that gets drawn too easily in moments like this. It is the idea that when something goes wrong, something must be fundamentally wrong with us. That when confidence breaks, it proves the industry is careless, or cutting corners, or in need of an outside fix.

Look at what the record actually shows, and you’ll see a very different industry.

You’ll see the Center for Produce Safety, whose work began two decades ago after an earlier outbreak, bringing industry, government and academia together so produce safety solutions are grounded in science and ready for the field, not the theoretical.

You’ll see IFPA and WGA scientists partnering with the FDA, federal and academic scientists for two years of meticulous work to define research gaps that still need to be filled for the industry and public health authorities to deal with cyclospora.

You’ll see an industry that, in the wake of this summer, deepened its collaboration with the FDA and the CDC, convened a panel of leaders focused on joint prevention, and engaged Codex and the European Food Safety Authority to advance standards that protect public health and keep trade moving.

You’ll see tools most consumers will never hear about, including monitoring that draws on the same genomic data federal agencies use for outbreak surveillance, so that when a signal appears, we can act on behalf of members before it becomes a headline.

And you’ll see an industry willing to put real numbers behind transparency.

When our own work found that more than two-thirds of participants named a lack of traceability as a defining industry challenge, we didn’t shrug. A volunteer-led group engineered a solution estimated to save 8 million labor hours and $250 million a year in traceability compliance costs. That is not the behavior of an industry that doesn’t care. That is the behavior of an industry that cares enough to invest in getting it right, at scale, and on its own initiative.

So let me be direct, in the way I know this community appreciates.

The problem this year was never our commitment. Confidence and trust are the real currency of this business. When it holds, borders open, markets function, and consumers choose fresh. When it cracks, the disruption doesn’t stop at one commodity, one country, or one company.

Our challenge is not that we’ve done too little. It is that the immense, daily, science-driven work of keeping food safe has too often been the quietest story we tell. And in the absence of that story, others get told in its place.

Yes, we will always learn and do better. Every outbreak reinforces that responsibility, and we carry it seriously. But learning and doing better is not the same as conceding the industry itself is the thing that needs repair. We are the people closest to the crop, closest to the cold chain, and closest to the consumer. No group is better positioned to drive the changes food safety demands, because no group has more at stake or more expertise to bring to the table.

That is why the long wait on traceability has to end. Not because Congress, a regulator, or other trade groups say so, but because this industry is ready, consumer trust is on the line, and traceability is part of how confidence gets rebuilt. Leadership here belongs to us, and we should claim it plainly.

If there is one thing I want people outside our world to understand, it is this: The strength of fresh produce was never in pretending nothing goes wrong. It is in how completely, and how quietly, this community works to make sure it goes right. That commitment is real. It deserves to be seen, and an industry this capable should never let anyone else define it.

The future of food safety will not be handed to fresh produce. It will be led by it. That is the industry I know, and it is the one worth fighting for.

Cathy Burns is chief executive of the International Fresh Produce Association, representing the global fresh produce and floral supply chain. A former grocery executive, including president of Food Lion, she brings extensive leadership experience, industry insight and recognized expertise in consumer trends, marketing and retail strategy.