By Scott L. Miley
ANDERSON — Purdue University and local health officials urged caution for consumers who purchase produce from farmers markets or at street corner stands, due to the risk of possible contamination from storm-ravaged areas.
There is a chance of contamination from microorganisms on vegetable and fruit crops partly or completely submerged in floodwater, said Purdue University Extension specialists.
Those products should not be sold or consumed as fresh produce, they said.
“I would hope that the people selling produce would also heed these warnings as well, said John Orick, Purdue extension educator for Madison County.
He said consumers worried about possible contamination should ask vendors where the produce was grown and be sure it was not in a flooded area.
In Madison County, farmers markets are held in Anderson, Elwood, Lapel and Pendleton. At least one local farmers market has already taken precautions that should prevent contamination, said one organizer.
The Lapel Farmers Market, held on Saturday mornings on School Street, requires vendors to be local, said operating manager Eliza Tudor-Sykes.
“The majority of the farmers and people who grow produce are local, living on outskirts of Lapel,” she said.
Frank West, organizer of the farmers market held Saturday mornings in Pendleton’s Depot Park, said he urges consumers to wash vegetables at home. He also said that vendors at the Pendleton market live within a 20-mile radius.
In those instances, few local fields were flooded to the extent seen in southern Indiana counties, officials said.
Sprays, sanitizer and washing will not eliminate disease-causing organisms, so crops affected by flooding should be disposed of or worked into the soil, extension specialists said.
Farmers who grow fruit in flooded areas should not assume their crops are safe even if the fruit grows on trees, said Peter Hirst, an extension specialist in commercial tree fruit.
There is a high health risk from consuming produce submerged in or splashed with floodwater, she said Elizabeth Maynard, extension vegetable crops specialist at Purdue.
“For edible crops, there is the risk that the crops have been contaminated with pathogens or chemicals,” Maynard said. “These crops should not be harvested for sale as fresh produce. This may come as very unwelcome and unexpected news for producers.”
