The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Technical Assistance Program (TAP) continues to help small-scale farmers across California become compliant with the federal Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule for growing fruits, nuts and vegetables. This effort is strengthened through contracts with six multilingual University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) specialists.
Recently, TAP’s UCCE specialists provided six one-on-one meetings with growers to provide on-farm assessments. In-person meeting topics included food safety, FSMA compliance, on-farm treatment for pre-harvest and post-harvest ag water, and pesticide illness prevention training.
TAP specialists also held four workshops, three presentations and two webinars about food safety for diverse groups of growers, potential growers and farmworkers. Topics included overall food safety and sessions particular to strawberries and elderberries.
A factsheet, “Preparing for FSMA Inspections: Top 5 Recommendations for Small Farms,” was developed, distributed and translated into Spanish and Simplified Chinese. Work is progressing on a FSMA Inspection Preparation Checklist for modules of Produce Safety Alliance curriculum.
Visit the CDFA Technical Assistance Program webpage to learn more or to set up a meeting with a UCCE specialist.