The International Fresh Produce Association says the release of the Reagan-Udall Foundation’s report, “Roadmap to Produce Safety: A Conceptual Framework,” is a collaborative effort, and reiterated its call for adequate funding and future engagement with stakeholders.
“IFPA recognized the opportunity to represent our members in many of the working groups,” said IFPA Chief Science Officer Max Teplitski. “We believe that such [a] collaborative approach is fundamental in not only setting the direction, but also committing to the shared responsibility to follow the roadmap to enhance produce safety from farm to fork.”
IFPA also recognizes the FDA’s support and investment in the Produce Safety Dialogue process that informed the report, according to a release. The process included over 170 people who contributed to eight different working groups. This investment reflects the sentiment from both the participants and the FDA that ongoing collaboration and engagement across industry and regulatory groups will be critical to achieve measurable industry-wide impacts, the release said.
“While we stand ready to partner with our colleagues in industry and the FDA,” said Teplitski, “we also continue to advocate for the need to focus on risk-based and risk-appropriate approaches to food safety, investment into the development of detection tools and protocols that are robust and reproducible, using meaningful datasets to drive action plans, and for adequate allocation of federal and state resources to ensure the success of this collaboration.”
In addition to this advocacy work, IFPA says it will continue to inform industry members on opportunities to contribute to these collective efforts to improve produce safety and increase consumer confidence.
