Industry leaders advocate for the Center for Produce Safety

Almost two dozen organizations from across the fresh produce supply chain have contributed from $100,000 up to $250,000 so far to the Center for Produce Safety’s (CPS) latest campaign to fund fresh produce food-safety research, CPS reports in a news release.

Two of those industry leaders recently spoke about why they support CPS, and what they get out of the relationship: Calavo President and CEO Brian Kocher, and The Giumarra Companies President Tim Riley. 

The leaders pointed to the unique food safety challenges facing fresh produce and to the unique role CPS plays in answering those challenges and stoking consumer confidence.

Giumarra Companies’ Riley highlighted the food safety challenges facing fresh produce compared to other foods, and the importance of delivering safe produce to consumers.

“How fresh produce is grown, harvested and packed presents our industry with unique challenges unlike any other. It’s imperative that we always fund academic research in the area of food safety,” Riley said in the release. “Continuous advancements in food safety help us ensure the products we sell to consumers are safe in addition to being healthy."

Calavo’s Kocher noted the responsibility that is put on the industry to prioritize produce safety.

“We live food safety so that our customers, our consumers, don’t have to question or worry about it,” Kocher said in the release. “So, food safety is our bedrock promise to them. It’s part of our DNA, a goal we can never stop working toward. We’re never finished.”

Funding science for five years

CPS’s research capital campaign will finance the center’s work for five years, allowing CPS to continue its mission to fund science, find solutions and fuel change in produce safety. To date, 66 organizations from across the fresh produce supply chain have contributed, according to the release.

Here’s how that CPS funding works:

Each year, the center’s Technical Committee identifies the industry’s top produce-safety questions, then calls on researchers to answer them. Learnings are shared with industry, government, public health and other produce safety stakeholders. Those knowledge-transfer channels include:

• A searchable online research database
• A research symposium each year
• Key learnings and other resources that boil out from them: emails and web seminars, columns in produce-centric trade media outlets, and CPS social media feeds.

Since its founding in 2007, the Center for Produce Safety has invested $40.1 million to date in 225 produce-centric food safety research projects.

In September, CPS announced funding of 14 new projects starting in 2023, valued at just over $3.9 million. Those projects are designed to answer industry questions about, for example, evaluating and mitigating risk from Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella, controlling Cyclospora, and sanitizing harvesting bins and picking bags.

CPS returns on the investment 

Calavo’s Kocher reports his company makes a very intentional effort to learn from the Center for Produce Safety, including reviewing CPS research and attending symposia and webinars.

“I think you’re a better HR person, a better finance person, if you know more about your business — it makes us a better company when our talent can get educated,” Kocher said in the release.

Kocher and Riley called on other industry leaders to join them in supporting CPS, stressing that the industry accomplishes more together than it can alone.

“The Giumarra Companies contribute is to CPS because its efforts are critical to our business. Food safety has been one of our top priorities since it became known to the industry,” Riley said in the release. “The resources and events put forth by CPS support our internal efforts in a way that we wouldn’t be able to accomplish on our own.”

“What’s good for food safety is good for the entire produce industry,” Kocher said in the release. “It’s not why would you be involved with CPS, it’s why wouldn’t you?”

 A current list of contributors can be viewed at www.centerforproducesafety.org/2020-campaign.php.