Safe farm practices initiative launched

of illnesses from eating fresh and fresh-cut produce has prompted widespread calls for objective, good-practice standards and benchmarks to ensure that growers, processors and shippers all take adequate safety and hygienic precautions, Buchanan says.

These calls have come from various agricultural production groups, grocers, regulatory agencies, international trading partners, and consumer organizations. Additionally, the FDA is required by the Food Safety Modernization Act to develop produce safety standards.

Some agricultural industry groups — including large lettuce and tomato growers — have attempted to enforce their own standards through state and regional regulatory channels, setting off what Buchanan calls a “firestorm of criticism and complaints” challenging the appropriateness and costs associated with these practices.

“No group’s protocol will be approved and enforced without scientific validation,” Buchanan says. “The science must be solid enough to withstand domestic legal challenges and international trading disputes. Producers, processors, and consumers must be assured that the good practice standards apply to their region — that what works on a big farm in California, makes sense on a couple dozen acres on the East Coast,” he adds.

Research targets
The release quotes the research team to say that it will give regulators, farmers, packers, and others along the supply chain the scientific and technological knowledge needed to develop and defend produce safety protocols, or ‘metrics’ as the industry calls them.

At the production stage, the research will focus on air, water, and other environmental factors related to potential contamination by pathogens; risks during harvesting, packing, and processing; as well as temperature and other handling concerns as produce moves to market.

“This is a massive undertaking because there are hundreds of variations and factors we have to take into account,” Buchanan says. “Appropriate practices may vary from one season to another, even in one location. There’s no way we could do this without the massive data collection effort the industry has committed to.”

Industry participation
The initiative’s industry partners — representing more than 90 percent of the leafy greens and tomato production in the United States — will conduct about 200,000 separate tests during the project to measure the presence of pathogens.

Already, the agriculture producers are testing for pathogens in produce just before and after harvesting. Also, they making environmental tests — for example, in irrigation waters, in fertilizers, and other soil amendments — and sanitary conditions in transport and processing facilities. The researchers will then analyze all this data.

The researchers will conduct a series of controlled experiments to see how various agricultural and hygienic practices affect levels of pathogens. By conducting these tests around the country, the team will be able to gauge any variations in the effectiveness of safety practices from region to region.

Rapid safety updates
Industry and government advisory panels will monitor the progress of the research, and this will aid the rapid deployment of updated safety information. “If we find out along the way that an industry practice is particularly risky or beneficial, we’ll flash word through our network so that important safety information gets out quickly,” Buchanan says.

Funding
The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture is funding the project through its Specialty Crop Research Initiative. The three-year grant totals $5.4 million. The industry partners are matching the grant with nearly $4 million in in-kind support.