Food safetySafe farm practices initiative launched

Ever since 2006, when a deadly batch of spinach killed three people and sickened hundreds, U.S. farm producers, packers, and others along the distribution line have argued over how best to protect consumers and assure them that leafy greens and tomatoes are safe.

Now, a major, national initiative, led by University of Maryland researchers, may help settle the fight, increase safety and deliver more trustworthy salad fixings. It promises to be one of the most comprehensive studies of fresh produce safety ever conducted.

“Leafy greens and tomatoes remain the produce items most frequently responsible for outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, yet we still don’t know what specific safety guidelines are justified scientifically,” says principal investigator Robert Buchanan, the University of Maryland professor and director of its Center for Food Safety and Security Systems, who is heading the research initiative.

“Guidelines, standards and regulations need to be based on solid science or we’ll end up with legal wrangling rather than safer salads,” Buchanan adds.

A University of Maryland release reports that the research will create the scientific basis for detailed safe, hygienic practices in farming, packing, transporting and storing fresh produce. The idea is to prevent water, air or ground sources of pathogen contamination by setting standards or benchmarks that can be applied in a variety of growing regions and countries.

For example, how far apart do you need to keep a lettuce patch from pigs or other farm animals to prevent bacterial contamination? What kinds of barriers are needed to prevent contaminated water from reaching crops? What kinds of animal-based fertilizers are safe to use?

To get hard, scientific answers, Buchanan has secured a $5.4 million dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), along with substantial industry funding — roughly $9 million in all — for an extensive research project spanning at least three years. The project will involve extensive testing and data collection by industry, supplemented with field experiments involving eight other university and federal laboratories around the country.

“The research team assembled represents a significant portion of the produce safety experts in the United States, and includes expertise in the multiple disciplines needed to address this highly complex problem,” Buchanan notes. The University of Maryland’s research partners are Ohio State University; Rutgers University; University of California, Davis; University of Florida; University of Delaware; University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; USDA; and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

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