“Workers are your first line of defense,” said Micah Hutchison, produce safety technician with Michigan’s produce safety technician program, who is based at the Genesee Conservation District in Flint.

Growers should invest time to explain to workers why food safety tasks are required.

“Washing your hands before you handle produce seems like common sense, but it’s not common sense if you don’t know why you have to do it,” said Elena Rogers, North Carolina State University area specialized agent in fresh produce food safety. Training should be relevant to workers’ jobs and daily tasks. 

“If they’re only harvesting, workers may not need to know what’s going on in the packing shed,” Hutchison said.

Food safety practices should be written, implemented company-wide and documented. Everyone who works on the farm should understand them. Owners, managers and supervisors should set good examples by following the practices.

“It’s really about creating a culture of food safety,” Hutchison said. 

Finding time for training, especially during harvest, is a common challenge, as are language barriers. Training videos offer visual learning opportunities, and training should be varied to keep it relevant and interesting, Hutchison said.

Posters with pictures and signs can reinforce food safety training and should be placed where they’ll be most effective.

“Written reminders are important, but they must be reinforced,” Rogers said. “Otherwise, the workers think they are decorations.”

Rewards can work better to reinforce good behaviors than corrective action, Hutchison said, and training reviews should be conducted throughout the season or when a problem arises.

Visitors present a challenge for food safety. “What are the expectations?” Rogers said. “Where can they go and where can’t they go?”

Key messages can be communicated through signage or maybe a short video, with the simplest plan being to escort the visitors, Hutchinson said. 

— Dean Peterson, contributing writer

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The FDA’s Food Traceability Final Rule establishes recordkeeping requirements beyond existing regulations and will implement Section 204(d) of the Food Safety Modernization Act (commonly known as FSMA 204) for persons who manufacture, process, pack or hold foods included on the Food Traceability List (FTL). Records containing Key Data Elements (KDEs) associated with Critical Tracking Events (CTEs) must be maintained and quickly providable to the FDA.

The goal is faster identification and removal of potentially contaminated food from the market. A recent salmonella outbreak linked to cantaloupes and subsequent recall affecting several produce suppliers and retailers provided a reminder of the importance of rapid traceability. The outbreak was declared over on Jan. 19, but not before six people died and 407 were sickened in 44 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control. 

At least one retail giant has already taken steps to beef up its traceability measures well before the FDA deadline, and a company working to streamline the compliance process expects more to follow.

Game-changing memo

On Dec. 1, The Kroger Co. sent a memo to its suppliers that sent ripples throughout the grocery supply chain. The memo notified suppliers that Kroger intended to collect and record traceability information for all food products entering its facilities — not just those on the FTL — by June 30, 2025.

“By taking these steps, Kroger believes we are taking the appropriate actions to ensure both our companies will satisfy the FDA’s Final Rule requirements,” the memo, addressed to “Valued Supplier,” stated. 

That decision “changes everything,” according to Randy Fields, chair and CEO of ReposiTrak, a global food traceability and regulatory compliance network which connects food supply chain companies and wholesalers through an inventory management platform. Network members can exchange KDEs for each CTE in their supply chains.

“(The memo) says two things that I think have galvanized the industry. Kroger has said all food is now going to be traced. That’s No. 1,” Fields said. “So for example, if you had a retail store with 60,000 SKUs, before the Kroger announcement, maybe five to seven thousand of those SKUs were covered by rule 204. That’s a lot, but it’s not everything. Now, with the Kroger announcement, all 60,000 are going to be tracked and traced.

“The other is: sooner. Kroger said you have to be compliant with us by June of 2025. Now, people will not accept shipments that don’t have the traceability records with them. It’s not going to be like, ‘Hey, I’d appreciate it if you would do traceability with me.’ It’s going to be as simple as: no label, no traceability, no ship.” 

Fields said that the ReposiTrak Traceability Network (RTN) currently includes almost 1,400 supplier facilities that are in some stage of joining the network, with another 3,000 to 4,000 expected to join by this June.

“It’s bigger than we guessed,” Fields said. “We always thought people would end up, by default, doing everything, (because) it’s easier to do everything than a few things. How do you know, when you have 100 cases of produce hitting the store, which of those cases are (covered by) 204? But what we didn’t expect was that people would do it sooner than what the government requires.”

Fields predicted other retail behemoths would follow Kroger’s lead within a few months, partially to seize a strategic marketing advantage.

A ‘gargantuan adjustment’

Achieving FSMA 204 compliance is a complicated process, Fields said — a reality ReposiTrak has realized as it tracks thousands of SKUs over dozens of distribution centers and stores.

“We have a better view of what the actual real-life problems are in doing it, and they are myriad,” Fields said. “Here’s an example: 30% of all the cases of product that go from a supplier to a wholesaler or retailer have no label. That has to get fixed.” 

Fields has also encountered confusion among produce suppliers who weren’t concerned with enhanced traceability requirements because their products, such as onions, aren’t on the FTL. FTL is available at fda.gov/food/food-safety- modernization-act-fsma/food- traceability-list

“You’re not on that list, (but) you’re on the Kroger list,” Fields said. “It’s a multiyear process to get up and running. Now they’ve got 14 months.”

Smaller growers are not necessarily exempt from compliance, either, Fields said, even though farms with total produce sales of less than $25,000 are not covered by the rule.

“If you’re a retailer or a wholesaler or a distributor, and you buy product from a vendor who says they’re exempt, what if they’re lying to you? Whoops,” Fields said. “They have just shifted the liability from them to you, and you have no way of proving they’re exempt. You have to take their word for it. Good luck. So practically speaking, no one’s going to get exemptions.”

The adjustment, Fields said, “is going to be gargantuan. This touches every process in the company. It means if you are a merchant, you can only buy from people who can do it (enhanced traceability), and you have to be sure that they can.

“Secondly, your distribution center can only accept product from people who can do it, and then you have to change the process of receiving and shipping.” 

For example, instead of scanning bulk pallets, retailers will have to scan every case of product. 

“This will feel like getting in a time machine and going backwards. This is going to be hard for the industry,” he said. “Realistically, most people think they do some form of traceability, and it just isn’t true. People don’t understand what it is, they mistakenly think that they do it, and then they think they’re exempt.”

Fields estimated that by June 2025, ReposiTrak will have around 8,000 to 10,000 participants in its system. And despite the initial headaches, that will ultimately end up being a good thing, he said. 

“It will speed up traceability issues, all the way back to the farm,” he said. “Anything that gives confidence to consumers is a good thing, and this should.”

Written by Melinda Waldrop contributing writer

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Below is a listing of educational opportunities that UF IFAS has scheduled.

In-person Produce Safety Alliance grower training

The in-person, one-day course is designed for produce growers and packers who fall under the FSMAs Produce Safety Rule. 

• Oct. 29 in Homestead
• Nov. 7 in Jacksonville
• Dec. 3 in Lake Alfred
• Dec. 12 in Wauchula

Remote Produce Safety Alliance grower training 

The training is a virtual three-day, three-hour course geared for both fruit and vegetable growers and packers who fall under the FSMA. 

• Aug 20-22: Register now for this event.
• Oct 15-17: Register now for this event.
• Nov 19-21: Register now for this event.

In-person Cleaning and Sanitation Workshop 

The one-day course will be Dec. 4 in Lake Alfred, and it will focus on best practices of cleaning and sanitization and development of proper standard operating procedures. Registration is open for this workshop.

Food Safety Supervisor Training 

A one-day course, delivered alongside FFVA, is focused on food safety supervisor duties, regulatory and audit requirements, the “why” behind the requirements and adult learning. This event will be Oct. 30 in Fort Pierce.

For registration questions, email sarahmccoy@ufk.edu. For general food safety questions, email taylorlangford@ufledu.

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Growers and others in the supply chain work hard to ensure they grow, harvest and ship safe food that won’t spark a recall or incident that sickens the consumers who purchase the fruits of growers’ fields.

Food safety

The month of May brought a big change to the Produce Safety Rule. The FDA updated agricultural water requirements, which were published in the Federal Register.

Similar to proposed revisions published in 2021, the changes affect pre-harvest water (agricultural water used during growing non-sprout covered produce), according to the Produce Safety Alliance (PSA), a collaboration between Cornell University, USDA and FDA.

Some of the factors growers should consider in the changes include location and nature of the water source (whether groundwater or surface water) and the type of application method (such as overhead sprinkler or spray, drip, furrow, flood and seepage irrigation). 

PSA recommends growers check the FDA’s FSMA Final Rule on Pre-Harvest Agricultural Water website for current information.

Food safety is the focus of this issue of Fruit Growers News.

Worker training and food handling safety

In this issue, we cover the first line of defense, the importance of worker training crucial to food handling safety.

FSMA: postharvest handling and sanitation considerations

To learn how FSMA requirements affect postharvest handling and sanitation, read the article on postharvest considerations that shows growers how to track the flow of produce from the field through the packing facility, the start of a food safety risk assessment.

Fresh Views

Our new column, Fresh Views, written by Fruit + Vegetable 40 Under Forty honorees, continues to add great insight.

Lenny Burger, of the five generation Pennsylvania Burger’s Farm, discusses how keeping on top of all the paperwork involved in running a farm, including food safety documentation, is a priority for family members who are hands-on involved in everything about the farm.

The FGN August 2024 issue is now available in print and digital format.

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Tracking the flow of produce from the field through the packing area is the start of a food safety risk assessment. 

“Map the flow of produce through your facility,” said Allissa Conley, produce safety technician with Michigan’s produce safety technician program, who is based at the Newaygo Conservation District in Fremont, Michigan. That includes mapping the flow through storage and loading for shipment and identifying the produce safety risks associated with each step. 

“Basic housekeeping is the first step,” Conley said. This includes sweeping, emptying trash and cull piles daily, cleaning up spills and maintaining pest control programs. Contamination is easier to control in closed packing areas, but facilities may have less flexibility to adopt changes.

Attention to detail

 “It’s hard to come up with a generalization on the areas of most risk for all situations,” said Micah Hutchison, Michigan produce safety technician based at the Genesee Conservation District in Flint, Michigan. “Risk assessment is going through the facility, identifying the risks and developing a plan to mitigate those risks.” 

Hutchison said worker training and hygienic design are big parts of creating a culture of food safety. 

That process starts with buying decisions. Select materials that are easy to clean and sanitize when building a new packinghouse or buying new equipment or harvest containers. 

Food contact surfaces should be made of nontoxic, nonabsorbent, durable materials that are compatible with the crop and cleaning method. For example, plastic is smooth, water-resistant and easy to clean compared to carpeting. Materials that react with water or sanitizers can erode or rust, creating harboring places for pathogens.

Design and install equipment to facilitate cleaning and sanitizing. Areas needing cleaning and sanitizing should be easily accessible or easily taken apart. Brushes, rollers, nozzles and other parts should be easy to remove or access.

Some parts of the packing and storage area may already be constructed of materials that are hard to clean and sanitize. Wooden bins, for example, have a porous surface. One strategy may be to clean wooden surfaces more often and let them air dry after washing.

Dirt and moisture can accumulate in gaps, cracks, porous materials and hollow spaces, making them ideal places for pathogens to grow. Continuous welds that are rounded and smoothed are preferred.

Mitigation is about risk reduction, not risk elimination. Hygienic design upgrades don’t have to be complicated. 

“Making incremental changes can help a lot,” Hutchison said. “Try to see the value in the upgrades. Upgrades are an investment in produce safety.”

From farm to facility

Farm food safety plans are not required by FSMA’s Produce Safety Rule, said Morgan Anderson, produce safety technician with the Ottawa Conservation District in Grand Haven, Michigan. But farm food safety plans have been identified as critical to implementing produce safety practices.

“It’s all about assessing risk,” Anderson said. “Every farm is unique, and your farm should reflect your plan.”

The first step in developing a plan is to review all operations to identify practices or conditions that could create or increase produce safety risk. Review the farm environment and adjacent land and focus on microbial, chemical and physical risks. Rank risks and prioritize which ones to address first.

Risks that could lead to contamination of the whole crop are the most serious, followed by risks that caused previous contaminations. Hiring new people, retrofitting equipment, changing suppliers or processes — anything that affects production practices — could increase risk.

Develop practices to reduce risks and write a farm food safety plan to guide implementation. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) and policies will outline what needs to be done and who will do it and build recordkeeping into the process.

“Make your plan what you’re doing, not what you want to do,” Anderson said. 

Review and update your plan at least annually or whenever practices, personnel or equipment changes. 

“What is your vision for your farm?” Anderson asked. “As your farm evolves, so should your plan.”

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Growing up in rural Douglas, Georgia, a town of 11,000 people, Brown actively participated in Future Farmers of America. She also liked to watch cooking shows on TV, and she enjoyed science.

But she wasn’t sure how to combine food with science.

Flash forward a couple of decades, and now she’s the new state specialized agent for food science for the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Extension in southwest Florida.

“When I was in high school, I was selected to attend the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program as an agricultural sciences major,” she said in a news release. “It was a great opportunity to get a first glimpse into what college or other academic pursuits could look like outside of a traditional classroom setting. What made this program unique was there was not a set curriculum, no tests and (we had) freedom to pursue what we were interested in learning. This program was a game changer for me.”

Later, as a sophomore at the University of Georgia (UGA), Brown was looking for a course to satisfy one of her core degree requirements. She was intrigued by a class called, “Food Issues and Choices,” adding, “Who doesn’t like talking about food?”

She wound up earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in food science at UGA, then a master’s in animal science from the University of Connecticut (UConn). In August, she will receive her Ph.D. in animal science from UConn.

While earning her doctorate, Brown worked as a food safety specialist at Oregon State University. Now, Brown plans to help residents, entrepreneurs, members of the food industry and others understand more about food safety statewide – but with an emphasis on stakeholders in Southwest Florida.

Brown admits to having a lot to learn about the specific food science and safety needs of Florida.

“I foresee one of the biggest needs being to provide assistance — through outreach and education — to the food industry with understanding and compliance of new and changing federal regulations,” she said.

For example, in November 2022 and May 2024, the Food and Drug Administration released the final Food Traceability Rule and Pre-Harvest Agricultural Water Rule, respectively.

Both rules fall under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which was signed into law in 2011. This act was one of the most sweeping changes to food safety regulation in decades, with one of the big outcomes being a shift from reacting to problems to a focus on preventing them.

Not all food operations are required to comply with FSMA regulations. However, Brown and others still need to train smaller food operations on other food related regulations (at the local, state, and federal level) and food safety best practices. The food safety team at UF/IFAS has already done a fantastic job creating and adapting courses and resources for some of these audiences, she said.

“However, as industry needs change, it is important that we continue to meet those needs,” Brown said. “I have talked with several food science and food safety faculty and staff at UF/IFAS about this topic, and I look forward to our future collaborations, so we can deliver information to our constituents.”

Brown works at the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center in Immokalee, Florida, which employs scientists from many academic disciplines.

“Although I greatly miss my Oregon collaborators and friends, this position had everything I was looking for in the next stage of my career,” she said. “Through my job- searching over the years, I had not found many positions that allow you to solely focus on helping people, which was one of the major reasons I got into science as a career path. Extension is great in that regard in that it allows for direct interactions with your community and lets you use your skillsets to help solve real problems.”

— Brad Buck, UF/IFAS.

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The new bulk weigh filling machine system integrates an in-line metal detector between the filling process and weigh bucket.

The PrimoLinear T-25 Twin Lane Net Weigher is designed to accurately and efficiently fill bulk products into bags, boxes and containers, according to a news release. Its design isolates any load and directs the product into an inspection bin if metal is detected, preventing metal from entering the finished package.

The WeighPack Systems T25 bulk weigh filler with metal detection integrates an in-line metal detector between the filling process and weigh bucket. Image courtesy of WeighPack Systems
The machine includes three cascading pans per lane, including transfer, bulk and dribble pans for precision dispensing. It also features a PrimoLinear Windows based operating system, a digital camera with online support via Wi-Fi or ethernet, an open frame design for easy cleaning and a tool-less, adjustable conveyor to accommodate all container sizes.

“We are excited to introduce our new bulk weigh filling machine to the market,” Justin Taraborelli, WeighPack systems vice president, said in the release. “This machine is the result of our commitment to providing our customers with the best packaging solutions. We are confident that it will help businesses increase their productivity and efficiency.”

Montreal-based WeighPack Systems, a Paxiom Group company, offers packaging solutions including filling, bagging, wrapping and conveying.

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The Winery Sanitation & Food Safety Webinar is scheduled for June 27.

The web seminar is designed to train viticulturists and winemakers on best practices and information necessary for operations to comply with Food and Drug Administration requirements, according to a news release.

The seminar, Winery Sanitation & Food Safety Compliance: Training the Trainer Webinar, is organized by the Washington Winegrowers Association and Washington State University (WSU) Viticulture & Enology, runs from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

“This webinar is a fantastic opportunity for wineries to fulfill the Food Safety Modernization Act training mandate and review Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP) and Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOP) that are expected under FDA’s regulatory jurisdiction and differ from state requirements,” according to the release.

Led by WSU’s Thomas Henick-Kling and Tom Collins, the course will help attendees assess their cleaning and sanitizing programs in order to realize where deficits exist and make corrective actions, understand what records need to be kept, how to train all winery workers, and gain valuable insights into how to mitigate costs incurred by poor sanitation in the winery.

This is a brief agenda of the webinar:

• Winery Sanitation Basics including Barrel Hygiene
• Sanitation Verification
• Basic Food Safety Certification Training
• Q&A

Find more information here.

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The event promises to be focused on advocacy, networking and industry insights. Registration is still open for those wishing to join the produce DC Fly-In.

This year, the Congressional Specialty Crop Caucus, co-chaired by Representatives David Valadao (CA-R), David Rouzer (NC-R), Jim Costa (CA-D), and Elissa Slotkin (MI-D), will be among the featured speakers. These champions of the produce industry will discuss key issues impacting the sector, according to a news release.

A major highlight of the conference will be the focus on food safety. Donald Prater, FDA’s acting director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, is scheduled to deliver remarks.

Following Prater’s presentation, IFPA’s Natalie Dyenson will moderate an interactive FDA agency roundtable featuring five top officials from the FDA Human Food Program. Attendees are encouraged to bring questions about collaboration between industry and government to enhance food safety.

The conference will also celebrate the #PowerofFresh, emphasizing the importance of fresh produce in policy discussions. Attendees can look forward to recognizing the Advocate of the Year, Frieda Rapoport Caplan Family Business Scholarship Recipients, Career Pathways interns, and participants in the IFPA Produce Safety Immersion Program.

Additional events include luncheons and receptions for the Women’s Fresh Perspectives community, the Joy of Fresh Reception at the Rayburn Courtyard, and the FreshPAC reception and dinner on the Wharf.

With recent legislative successes, such as the full funding of the Fruit and Vegetable benefit with WIC, the IFPA aims to address critical issues including the labor crisis.

For more information, visit the Washington Conference page on IFPA’s website.

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The event is scheduled for June 18th-19th at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center in Denver, Colorado.

New this year, the symposium will report the “State of the Science” on 10 critical produce-safety topics. Those sessions will feature new findings from just-completed CPS research projects.

“Meet these important produce-safety researchers, and preview the topics they will be discussing with attendees,” according to a news release.

Presenting scientists welcome the opportunity to interact with the industry.

“I’m eager to present our produce safety findings in Denver and discuss the key insights with both industry leaders and academic colleagues,” Valentina Trinetta, of Kansas State University, said in the release. “I’m also excited about the opportunity to explore new projects and innovative ideas in produce safety.”

Participating institutions include University of California, Purdue University, Michigan State University, University of Arizona, Cornell University, Texas A&M, Oregon State University, University of Florida and USDA ARS Beltsville.

Session topics include:

• Agricultural water management
• Produce safety and process control
• Pathogen detection methods
• Pathogen growth, persistence, and movement on the farm
• Pathogen persistence and growth on fresh produce
• Understanding environmental pathogens and their control
• Animal intrusion and pathogen transfer
• Emerging use of genomics

Read the agenda here.

The symposium offers education sessions and networking opportunities, benefiting members of the executive suite to the food safety manager and from growers to processors, and is designed to meet industry needs and help industry members grow their produce safety capabilities.

More information is available here.

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