Farm Food Safety: Training
an Angry Mob
Robert Hadad
Regional Vegetable Specialist
Cornell Cooperative Extension
Cornell University
rgh26@cornell.edu
“You Want Us to Do What?”
Farm Food Safety
• GAPs – Good Agricultural Practices
• HGAPs – Harmonized
• Food safety practices to reduce risk on the
farm
• Guidelines from USDA….
All They Heard Was… Government
“You Talking to Me?
• Responding to the needs of an audience
• Fruit and vegetable farmers selling to large
retailers being told that it would be a good
idea to be trained in GAPs
• USDA program was voluntary….and retailers
suggesting it
• Huge resentment by growers
• “What’s Wrong with Eating my Vegetables?”
Then 2006 Happened
The Media…
• "It's a good thing I had a bag of
Marijuana instead of a bag of
spinach. I might be dead by now.“ –
Willie Nelson
Voluntary to Mandatory
• By mid-fall 2006 major buyers in NY and
elsewhere started to demand GAPs
certification
• We developed a workshop
• Provided farm food safety basics to help them
write the required food safety plan
Tried to Do it All in One Day…
Back to the Drawing Board
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Workshop never got past the shouting match
Decided to revise our teaching methods
Full emersion into farm food safety
New approach – Food Safety Everyday not
Food Safety for One Day
• Getting beyond the mandatory mentality
Retooled Curriculum
• Applied/received NECRME grant “Reducing
Risk for Produce Growers Through Farm Food
Safety Workshop Training”
• Created curriculum &farm food safety plan
template
• Workshops would be two days back to back
• Day One: understanding microbial
contamination and how to assess and reduce
risk
Farmer Testimonials
Day 2
• Day Two: help farmers to write their food
safety plans based on what they learned from
Day One
• Only allow attendees from a Day One to
participate in a Day 2
• Run a “mock” audit on-farm for attendees to
see what the auditors see
Day Two
Benefits for Farmer
• Rather than hype the mandatory aspects of
what buyers want, focus on positives
• Benefits of opening doors to more markets
• Produce quality improvements
• Building on the common sense of what
growers already doing
• Divide up the production and packing aspects
of growing produce into segments
Assess: Where are the Risks
Actions: How to Minimize Risks
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Worker training
Health and hygiene
Manure and compost
Irrigation water
Domestic animals and wildlife
Post-harvest water usage
Transportation
Traceability
“Once Upon a Time…”
• Most importantly, created an introduction
• Real brief intro to microbiology
• Highlight the outbreak and illness data
FDA-regulated foods linked to reported
illnesses, 1996-2006 (N=23,428 illnesses)
FDA-regulated foods linked to reported
outbreaks, 1996-2006 (N=454
outbreaks)
Produce Safety Challenges
• Microbial contamination on produce is extremely
difficult to remove once present
– Rough surfaces, folds, crevices
– Bruises, cuts, stem scars
• Contamination is often sporadic and difficult to
detect
• Fresh produce is often consumed raw
• Some pathogens have low infective dose
How Fresh Produce Gets Contaminated
What Can We Do To
Minimize the Risks?
• Focus on risk reduction, not risk elimination.
• “Current technologies cannot eliminate all
potential food safety hazards associated
with fresh produce that will be eaten raw.”
- Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards
for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
Tie the Concepts to What Farmers
Know
• PREVENTION is the Key to Reducing Microbial
Contamination of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
• Scouting
• Put food-borne pathogens in the same
mindset as plant disease management
September 2011
CDC: “34 dead in listeria cantaloupe
outbreak”
“What’s it Going to Cost Me?”
• Pulled together our training evaluations.
• Created a new survey for past participants to
see where they are
• Try to figure out economics
Evaluations
• Included evaluations for Day One and Day Two
Some Results
• Evaluations completed by participants on the first day
of the GAPs trainings indicated that 13% of participants
had a written farm food safety plan. By the end of day
two, 48% of participants report having 50-100% of
their farm food safety plans written. At the end of day
two, participants were asked if they would recommend
the training to others. Of those who completed the
evaluations, all except one say they would recommend
the training to others, with the one individual reporting
“maybe”.
• The three top reasons growers report for
implementing GAPs are their personal
commitment to food safety (24%), maintaining
market access (20%), and reducing liability
(17%).
Economics
• Over time figure out economics of
implementation vs benefits
• Grower survey
• Thirty five (43%) growers reported
maintaining sales valued from $14,000 to
$2,000,000, while 14 (16%) growers reported
expanded sales valued at $15,000 to
$300,000.
New Trainings Filling Up
New Grant Project
• “Assessing and Minimizing Risk of Microbial
Contamination in Fresh Produce for Small
Farms through Hands-on Training and Followup”
Follow Up
• Hurdles for some farmers – get hung up on
sections but don’t ask for help
• Through calls, emails, visits – maintain
connections to keep momentum going
• Collaborating with other states to improve
outreach
• Northeast Post-Harvest Research & Education
working group
No Respect