For Little Bear Produce, fresh produce food safety is a family value.
The grower-packer-shipper and fresh-cut processor grows close to 45 commodities in Texas, Georgia, New Jersey and New Mexico, and imports from Mexico and Peru. The company sells across the U.S. and Canada.
“When there’s an outbreak, it hurts that business and it hurts the whole industry. On the other side are the moms and dads, grandpas and grandmas, brothers and sisters, the children who are impacted. It is a very serious responsibility,” said Little Bear Produce Executive Vice President Bret Erickson.
“Food is about family — it’s about our family, our work family, our customers, the people who eat our product. We have to do everything we can to make sure it’s safe,” he continued.
Erickson advocated for Texas produce safety long before he joined the Little Bear Produce team in 2017. While president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association, he became aware of the Center for Produce Safety’s work. He pressed to have a Texas company named to CPS’ board of directors; CPS tapped TIPA’s then-chairman, Little Bear Produce founder Jimmy Bassetti.
Now Little Bear Produce’s Erickson sits on CPS’ executive committee. They are a two-time contributor to CPS’ quinquennial capital campaigns.
“CPS is on the cutting edge of food safety research because it is driven by producers, the folks who have skin in the game,” Erickson said. “We know what issues we have. We have a handle on what our challenges are.”
Three research projects that stand out
Erickson pointed to three recent CPS research projects that have informed Little Bear Produce’s food safety efforts. (Key learnings from CPS research symposia are available on the center’s website.)
Erickson highlighted University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Matthew Stasiewicz’s findings that pre-harvest testing for pathogens is more powerful than finished product testing, regardless of commodity or pathogen. Stasiewicz noted that the ability to detect low-level pathogens increases with the number of samples taken, and the size or total mass of the samples.
“Our decision to implement our own on-site microbiology lab was inspired by what our food safety people have heard at CPS symposia,” Erickson said.
Erickson also noted University of Georgia’s Nikki Shariat’s research that viable Salmonella can be spread to crops through fecal material from wild birds and should be addressed through hazard analysis and risk assessment. Forty-five farms participated in that study.
“If you’re growing outside, if you’re an open-air packing shed, this work impacts you,” Erickson said. “We should be aware of structures that might harbor birds and pay attention to the types of birds in the vicinity.”
He also highlighted work by University of Georgia’s Jinru Chen underscoring the need for better awareness of the importance of regularly cleaning and sanitizing harvest equipment. While the research was specific to blueberries, the learnings are universal.
“We’ve always known that there are a million and one ways pathogens can move from one place to another,” Erickson said. “Our food safety team is taking harder looks at how we can sample and test our harvest equipment, bins, trucks, forklifts and such.”
2024 symposium to be held June 18-19
Erickson encouraged industry members to attend CPS’ 15th annual Research Symposium June 18-19 in Denver. For more information and to register, visit CPS’ website.
“Whether you’re the CEO or the food safety director, CPS does a good job of helping you digest how this science is applicable to your business,” Erickson said. “And you’ll develop a network that you can lean on and reach out to if you have an issue.”
Erickson also urges industry to contribute to CPS.
“If you’re buying or selling produce, or if you’re a supplier of anything that touches produce, you are impacted positively by the work that Center for Produce Safety does. CPS is a worthwhile organization to contribute to,” he said.
