LOS ANGELES, March 27 (Xinhua) -- California Avocado Commission leaders were quite confident when responding to a recent recall of some avocados from a California grower on Wednesday.
"Only one grower was affected and there were no reported illnesses to consumers," Ken Melban, vice president for Industry Affairs of the California Avocado Commission, told Xinhua in an interview. "But he voluntarily recalled his products anyway as a precautionary measure in an excess of caution."
"That's a perfect example of the system working to protect consumers," he added.
Melban was referring to the voluntary recall on Sunday by the Escondido-based Henry Avocado Corporation (HAC), after a routine government inspection at their packing facility had turned up samples with Listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium that could cause illness.
HAC soon voluntarily recalled avocado shipments they had made to the six states of California, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Florida.
The company also said it had planned to implement a thorough sanitization of their packing facility which would be conducted by a non-affiliated, third-party cleaning company and undergo additional testing before resuming operations.
"This abundance of caution is part of California's avocado growers' commitment to providing the world's highest quality products and trusted environmental oversight," Tom Bellamore, president of the California Avocado Commission, told Xinhua.
The industry expects to see fewer avocados in the market this season due to higher temperatures and a rainier growing season that significantly reduced California's total avocado crop to 175 million pounds (about 87,500 tons) statewide, about half of last year's harvest.
