Traditionally, the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California (GSA) staff and Board of Directors have sent regular updates to our members, the affiliated agricultural community as well as elected officials with information on a wide range of issues from water quality to labor to food safety to new technologies.
Because farming is such a vital part of our area, and the lettuces and other produce we grow here feed the nation, we realized these issue updates might also be of interest to the community at large. Through the creation of this new blog section of our website as well as other outreach efforts, the GSA is committing to creating a focused, interactive dialogue with regular communications to our community about the issues that affect and impact us all. Our goal is to enhance the dialogue, share concerns and learn more from each other.
We want to begin with recent progress made to improve leafy greens food safety systems. During the 2018 outbreaks, consumers suffered and farm workers’ jobs were negatively impacted. We must do everything possible to prevent this from happening again and be unwavering in our commitment to advance continuous food safety improvements each and every day to protect consumers and avoid disruption to our employees. We want to share some of the steps taken so far:
- A Romaine Task Force is working to identify and determine needed improvements and enhancements to food safety systems for leafy greens throughout the supply chain – farm to fork. In addition to farmers, shippers, processors, Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) officials, leading scientists and trade associations, including the GSA, this task force also involves former high-ranking FDA officials, as well as consumer advocacy group representatives.
- New, more stringent water standards on leafy greens farms were recently announced. While current water standards for leafy greens farms in Arizona and California met or exceeded standards required under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the industry is committed to applying what has been learned from the outbreak investigations to further improve our standards. After much analysis, review of the best science currently available, discussions and input, new actionable and audit able water standards were adopted in April for California leafy greens farms.
- The vast majority of leafy greens produced in California are grown under a program called the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreements (LGMA), which was created in 2007 and operates under the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Under the LGMA, government auditors verify all members are implementing specific food safety practices for all of the leafy greens they put into commerce.
- Science is the key driver for advancing food safety improvement. Through the Center for Produce Safety (CPS), research and studies are underway to provide more information and better science that will guide continuous improvements in the growing, harvesting, shipping and processing of leafy greens. CPS is a non-profit foundation focused exclusively on providing the produce industry and government with open access to science-based information needed to enhance produce safety throughout the supply chain. The CPS Annual Research Symposium will be held in June and feature results and findings of recent food safety studies. GSA representatives will be attending this symposium and will provide an update via this blog.
We hope you find our new blog helpful and we welcome your feedback at abby@growershipper.com. Please share this blog with others and let us know other topics you would like to know more about as well.
