ELIZABETH WEISE: It’s a little unclear. At this time of — the epidemic started late April . . .
It’s the middle of June. Yet here’s the FDA: they don’t know when, they don’t know how, but they sort of know a few things about whether or not you can safely eat tomatoes yet. Unlike many other foods where you want traceability, tomatoes don’t carry barcodes.
Okay, what’s wrong with this picture? Didn’t we just have a “don’t tell Mom the babysitter is dead” moment with the FDA and some spinach? Oh, and the FDA and a beef recall so large it bankrupted the supplier? Err, and let’s not forget that deadly problem with tainted heparin — a vital medicine used for raising the activated clotting time of blood and is essential for major surgery — that has taken the FDA, what, months to track down? The FDA can mandate things and those mandates come with the power of federal law behind them. So I think we all have a lot of questions.
GS1 labeling would seem to be the start of the answer.
GHS and Regulatory Labeling Challenges in the New Era 
