Produce Safety And Security International Ohio Facilities Will Be ...

 vegetable packing ProduceSafety & Security International, Inc. (OTC: PRSF) announcedtoday that the company's food safe treatment centers in Ohio willbe using a cost-effective ozone process to prevent food-bornepathogens and viruses to provide certified food safe tomatoes andproduce to the food industry. Produce Safety & Security will provide a food safe process onthe truck or in the processing room. The process can be performedas the truck is backed up to the dock or unloaded into an ozone airprocessing room to remove the food-borne illness pathogens and helpprevent outbreaks of illness. Tomato growers in Florida, California and Mexico are having troubleselling their crops as U.S. regulators hunt the source of asalmonella outbreak linked to certain tomato varieties. Growerssaid on Tuesday. In Florida, the No.1 U.S. tomato producer, $40million worth of tomatoes will rot unless the U.S. Food and DrugAdministration quickly trace's the source of the outbreak andclears the state's produce. The Industry had to stop packing, stoppicking and shipping. The FDA warned U.S. consumers on Saturdaythat the outbreak was linked to eating certain raw red plum, redRoma, and red round tomatoes, and products containing thosetomatoes. Major restaurant and grocery chains stopped selling thosevarieties, and some stopped selling all raw tomatoes entirely. US.Growers produced $1.28 billion worth of tomatoes last year,according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Florida producesan annual crop valued at $600 to $700 million and supplies morethan 90 percent of the nation's production. Tomatoes sold with thevine still attached but those account for only a tiny portion ofthe industry. The FDA has said it does not know where the contaminated tomatoesoriginated. The infections have struck most often in New Mexico andTexas. The FDA has put California on the list of suppliers notlinked to the outbreak. However some supermarkets still rejectedtomatoes from California, which is the No. 2 U.S. producer over$400 million in annual sales. The entire tomato industry is being impacted. The state of SinaloaMexico sends nearly 700,000 metric tons of tomatoes a year to theUnited States in a business worth $900 million, according to aMexican vegetable exporters association. Exports of Mexican agricultural products soared after the UnitedStates, Canada and Mexico lifted all tariff barriers under the 1994North American Free Trade Agreement. But the benefits can easily bewiped out by a sanitary scare like the one in 2000, when the FDAidentified a strain of salmonella in Mexican melons and bannedtheir import. That cut the $200 million annual export business downto around $3 million and Mexican growers fear the same could happento tomatoes. The food-safe process will extend the shelf life, depending on thecommodity. This reduction of spoilage will provide the retailerwith a higher return. The sanitization of the trucks will greatlyreduce the loss of produce. The company will also provide testingby a third party. ¡°The issues listed above would not have occurred if thefederal legislators, trade organizations, food groups, foodservice, USDA, DOD and fast food sales would have adopted theProduce Safety & Security International Inc. certified foodsafe process proactive cost effective program removing the food-borne illness pathogens. We are opening food safety distributionand food service facilities in Ohio with the the ability to remove,eliminate Food-Borne Illness and extend Shelf-life. Our third partyaudit and traceability provides a proactive protection for freshproduce. If the Industry, government and retail chains would haveadopted the food safe process when presented 2 years ago we wouldnot be having the issues of sickness, product loss, issues of lossof revenue and loss of employment. It amazes me the only stateswith the foresight are Ohio and Virginia. It appears the other 48have no concern employment and food safety,¡± states ClarenceW. Karney CEO of Produce Safety & Security. Clarence W.