Food safety remains top of mind in 2023

Food safety will continue to be a priority in 2023 as organizations that work with fresh fruits and vegetables strive to ensure that only healthful, wholesome products end up on supermarket shelves and in restaurants and foodservice establishments.

The International Fresh Produce Association, for example, will continue to offer food safety training in areas such as listeria, good agricultural practices and recalls “to help the industry stay preventive and proactive,” said Jennifer McEntire, chief food safety and regulatory officer.

The Center for Produce Safety looks forward to “funding more science, finding more solutions and fueling more change in produce safety,” said Bonnie Fernandez-Fenaroli, executive director.

And food safety efforts from the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement include collaboration with Western Growers through GreenLink, an online platform for food safety risk management, said Tim York, LGMA CEO.

International Fresh Produce Association

IFPA is pleased to have USDA grant funding to help adapt and expand its listeria training program for a Spanish-speaking audience, McEntire said.

“Food safety isn’t just a U.S. issue, it’s a global issue,” she said, “and we’ll do more to increase access to food safety resources worldwide.”

IFPA also expects some information in January from Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf regarding how FDA intends to act on the Reagan-Udall report, which examined FDA’s food safety and nutrition programs, McEntire said.

“This is an area we’ve been deeply involved with, given the necessity of a strong working relationship between FDA and the produce industry,” she said.

The agency reportedly will start making some changes in February.

In November, FDA released a final rule on traceability that had been in the works for more than a decade, McEntire said.

Ed Treacy, IFPA’s vice president of sustainability and supply chain efficiencies, leads this area “because it is truly a supply chain issue, but comes into play primarily when there are foodborne illness outbreak investigations,” she said. “The Produce Traceability Initiative will continue to evaluate how the industry can most readily and effectively comply given the head start that produce has by virtue of implementing PTI.”

IFPA will continue to work with FDA as the agency builds out its prevention strategies for select food-hazard pairs, McEntire said.

“Similar to the work we’ve done with the tomato, papaya and, most recently, onion industries, we’ll continue to help convene stakeholders to discuss best practices to help prevent outbreaks,” she said.

She expected additional commodity groups to continue down this path in 2023.

Undoubtedly, some food safety issues will occur in 2023, but McEntire said she expected changes at FDA to result in better communication and coordination between the produce industry and outbreak investigators so that issues are resolved rapidly.

“Given the health benefits of fresh produce, we don’t want consumers to be afraid of our members’ products,” she said.

Related news: Toolkit from USDA launched to improve support to underserved growers

Center for Produce Safety

It will take “a collective brain trust” to tackle the produce industry’s food safety challenges, Fernandez-Fenaroli said.

Fortunately, the Center for Produce Safety is increasingly seeing greater collaboration within its community of diverse produce safety stakeholders, she said.

“Old silos are starting to crumble,” Fernandez-Fenaroli said.

They won’t fall overnight, but it is encouraging to watch produce experts, researchers and government stakeholders grow increasingly comfortable bringing their expertise to the topic and be willing to become part of the solution, she said.

“The climb ahead of us is steep,” she added.

Many produce safety issues are complex — such as reoccurring outbreaks, pathogens that are new or are new to produce, and finding pathogens in unexpected places.

“To solve our issues, the questions we must answer are equally complex. For example: Where does seasonality fit? Is this a produce-only issue, or can we look beyond produce to find answers? Are there points in our operations that need more attention?” Fernandez-Fenaroli said.

The industry will have a chance to examine these issues and more at the 2023 CPS Research Symposium scheduled for June at the Grand Hyatt in Buckhead, Ga. Twelve scientists will present their final reports.

Topics include mechanisms to prevent Cyclospora infection, food safety risks posed by wild birds, environmental contamination control measures in processing facilities and cleaning processes in a dry packinghouse environment.

“We will spend time on the application of the results for the industry,” Fernandez-Fenaroli said, adding that food safety is a continuous improvement process.

“No single link in the produce safety chain has the answer,” she said. “That said, by working together we can collectively address our tough questions.”

Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement

Fortunately, food safety issues were near the bottom of the list of challenges facing California leafy greens farmers in 2022, York said.

“Of the 11 multistate outbreaks investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2022, none were definitively attributed to leafy greens,” he said.

Nonetheless, he said food safety always will be a top priority for the LGMA. The GreenLink with Western Growers provides a digital, secure and confidential online platform that enables users to share food safety data, he said.

“The platform allows users to analyze their internal food safety data and to learn from aggregated, anonymized data that can help them anticipate, adjust and better manage food safety strategies,” York said.

The LGMA will continue to prioritize smarter audits and data sharing as the organization continues to evolve food safety standards in the next three years, he said.

“The LGMA is collaborating with the California Department of Food and Agriculture to achieve greater participation from growers, avoid redundant audits and streamline the audit process without compromising food safety or the integrity of the program and standards,” York said. The organization’s stringent food safety standards and audits are anything but static, he added.

Since 2018, the LGMA has implemented a series of significant updates to required food safety practices and now has created a timeline of the changes over the past five years. The timeline shows new approaches to water, soil amendments and crop inputs, to name just a few of the improvements.

“Because of the LGMA, leafy greens are safer than ever, and customers and consumers can have confidence that LGMA certified members are making a difference,” York said.