"Want to Find Out Where Your Fruit Was Grown? Good Luck"

"On May 6, 2014, as I read through the morning's incoming email, a Food Safety Alert from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcing a "voluntary recall of mangoes due to possible health risk" from the bacteria Listeria caught my eye. This grabbed my attention because at the time, a handsome sunset-hued mango, purchased several days before at my neighborhood market in Portland, Oregon, was ripening on the kitchen counter.

The FDA notice explained that the recall covered mangoes "shipped to retailers and distributors in limited quantities within five (5) US states (Arizona, California, Colorado, New Jersey and Texas)." It included a link to photos of PLU stickers for the mangoes covered by the recall. One of the two matched the PLU sticker on my mango.

I wondered: Was it possible that some of the mangoes shipped to California had ended up in Oregon?

As I learned, the answer is complicated. It turns out that tracing produce from kitchen counter back to its grower involves information that is far more difficult to obtain than one might guess, as key details are often considered confidential business information."

Elizabeth Grossman reports for Mother Jones/Food & Environment Reporting Network September 24, 2014.