By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH
Indiana Correspondent

FRANKLIN, Ind. — In the aftermath of devastating floods in Indiana, David Smith hopes Hoosier honesty prevails when it comes to the distribution of produce from affected areas.

“I hope that producers are honest enough not to sell produce that has been flooded,” said Smith, agriculture and natural resources extension educator in Johnson County, one of the hardest hit counties. “It’ll make it hard this year, but people just need to trust.”

Fruits and vegetables touched by floodwaters should not be eaten or distributed, Smith said.

“The biggest concern, especially in town, is raw sewage,” he said. “Sewers have been backing up and you don’t know what kind of bacteria could be in the water.”

Johnson County has some roadside fruit and vegetable markets and niche market growers, he said. Farmers whose soil was submerged in waters that might contain raw sewage shouldn’t plant back into that soil for at least 120 days, he said.

Also, perennials such as strawberries and raspberries grown in soil that might have been contaminated shouldn’t be consumed this year, he said. Tomatoes in flooded areas that might have been in the flowering stage also shouldn’t be consumed.

“Whatever bacteria that was in the water could be inside the plant,” he said. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”

If the bacterium is in the plant, washing won’t get rid of it, said Linda Souchon, Johnson County extension director. Some produce – lettuce, onions and some greens – had started to emerge before the floods, she said.

“There’s a lot of concern, not knowing what kind of contamination is in the floodwaters,” said Souchon, also consumer and family science educator for the county. “There could be some very bad consequences to eating produce that was flooded.”

A Purdue University extension vegetable crops specialist agreed.
“There are no sprays that would be appropriate for either the soil or the crop to reduce the risk of contamination,” Elizabeth Maynard said in a university press release. “Any sanitizer would become ineffective based on the level of organic material present in the soil.

“Washing does not eliminate pathogens, so we’re recommending producers focus on reducing the risk by discarding affected crops or incorporating the crops into the soil.”
People with flooded homes should also be concerned about food flooded there, Souchon said.
“You need to be extremely careful,” she said. “Raw produce shouldn’t be consumed, and cans and jars need to be boiled and the labels removed. Some of the water that flooded homes would have had raw sewage in it.”

For more information on safely using food after a flood, and for general disaster and emergency information, go to www.extension.purdue.edu/eden/index.html

People who grow produce for farmers’ markets are especially hard-hit because their crop is generally further along in the growing cycle this time of year, said Vickie Hadley, consumer and family science extension educator for Allen County.

“They use greenhouses and quick start methods,” she said. “But all of that should be destroyed. People tend to think using heat will take care of everything, but it doesn’t. Who knows what was in those floodwaters?”

Consumers who are uncertain about where produce came from should ask, she said.

“Ask the question, ask what the source was,” she said. “Generally, produce grown in Indiana stays local. You generally don’t see a lot transport out of the area.”

Smith said his office will probably receive more phone calls about the safety of food once things start to return to normal.
“You should ask where things were grown,” he said. “And keep track of where you bought things, just in case.”

Indiana produced about $136 million in vegetables and fruits in 2006, according to the university press release. In 2007, the state ranked in the top 10 states in the production of tomatoes for processing, cantaloupes, watermelons, snap beans for processing, cucumbers for pickles and blueberries.