Western Growers says the organization and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to improve proactive, science-based food safety standards focused on the prevention of outbreaks and the protection of public health.
The organization, which represents fresh produce growers in Arizona, California, Colorado and New Mexico, says this memorandum creates a data-sharing pilot project focused on fresh produce food safety data. This project will use Western Growers’ proprietary GreenLink food safety data-sharing platform. The MOU also establishes a broader framework for ongoing data sharing between WG and the FDA.
Kyle Diamantis, deputy commissioner for human foods at FDA, says this partnership helps increase data sharing between the agency and the fresh produce industry.
“With these data, the FDA can identify the factors that might contribute to contamination, such as land use surrounding the farm, the age and condition of equipment and how produce is transported,” he says. “This information is critical to focusing our collaborative efforts with growers on practices that are the most effective in reducing risk. We see these collaborations as more than just simply delivering a certain goal like data sharing or conducting a root cause analysis. These are the beginning of what we hope is a long-term relationship with industry that is built on trust and can help prevent outbreaks.”
Western Growers says this program aims to create a sustainable model that protects public health by advancing food safety knowledge, fostering preventive food safety behaviors, supporting resource management for public health agencies and minimizing supply chain disruptions.
“This partnership marks a significant step forward in advancing food safety knowledge, promoting preventive measures and strengthening public-private collaboration,” says Sonia Salas, associate vice president of food safety and regulatory affairs at Western Growers.
Western Growers says the goal of this collaboration is also to create opportunities for the FDA and the association to foster a better understanding of safe practices in the growing, harvesting, packing and holding of fresh produce. Western Growers says this effort aligns with the FDA’s goals in the new Reagan-Udall Foundation’s Roadmap to Produce Safety, which advocates for a shared responsibility approach to food safety and structured, stakeholder-led collaborations.
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