Packaged Salads Sales Back to Normal

(MoneyWatch)  Last month, I noted how quickly sales tend to bounce back after a food recall. As bad as a sales dip can be, once the danger is passed, consumers tend to return in fairly short order.

Some recent research seems to support that view. According to The Nielsen Co., sales of packaged salads have returned to where they were before the widespread E. coli,

Total sales in the United States of precut salad mix were $2.47 billion in the year ending July 12, a rise of 4.3 percent from the previous year.

And, according to the report, price as become a bigger factor in purchasing decisions.

Such news may hearten those in the tomato business, which is still smarting after the FDA's mistakenly pegging tomatoes as responsible for a salmonella outbreak a couple of months ago.