Oregon Public Broadcasting

Tomatoes are hitting waste cans with a fury after nearly 200 people nationwide became sick from the bacteria salmonella. But did you know that Northwest states have a program in place to check regionally grown crops for nasty microbes? Richland correspondent Anna King has more.

Back two years ago, people got sick from E. coli after they ate spinach from California.

In response, Northwest states, led by Washington, embraced a new federal inspection program.

Now there’s a team out there combing through the blueberry patches and checking potato fields. Inspectors test irrigation water for microbes. They check produce trucks to make sure they are clean. And the inspectors make sure they can trace back produce to a particular field.

They work for the agriculture divisions in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Jim Quigley, is program manager of GAP, or Good Agricultural Practices, for Washington State. He says lately an increasing number of farmers and packing houses have been signing up for the inspections.

Jim Quigley: "At one time it was voluntary, and now I think your major processors are looking at they want to demand it because they do want to supply the food chain with a quality product."

This whole inspection operation is invisible to the consumer. That’s because the safety program is happening in fields and packing houses.