The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) announces one vacancy on the Fertilizer Inspection Advisory Board. The board advises the CDFA secretary on CDFA’s Fertilizing Materials Inspection Program (FMIP), which ensures fertilizing materials are safe, effective and meet quality guarantees.
As part of the program, FMIP inspectors and investigators located throughout the state conduct routine sampling and inspections, respond to consumer complaints, and enforce laws and regulations that govern the manufacturing and distribution of fertilizing materials. FMIP is funded by fertilizing materials license and product registration fees and mill assessments.
There is one board position available. The term of office for board members is up to three years. This vacancy will fill an unfinished board term of service until October 14, 2022. Board members do not receive compensation, but they are entitled to necessary travel expenses. Board member applicants must hold a current fertilizing materials license or be a representative of a licensed firm.
Individuals interested in a board appointment must submit a resume and a completed Prospective Member Appointment Questionnaire (PMAQ). The PMAQ is available on the CDFA website at http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/ffldrs/pdfs/PMAQ_Fertilizer_IAB.pdf. Both the resume and PMAQ are due by April 15, 2022.
Send resume and PMAQ via email to Brittnie.Williams@cdfa.ca.gov or by mail to: CDFA Feed, Fertilizer and Livestock Drugs Regulatory Services Branch Attn: Brittnie Williams 1220 N Street Sacramento, CA 95814
If finalized, the proposed rule would require farms to conduct systems-based agricultural water assessments to determine and guide appropriate measures to minimize potential risks associated with pre-harvest agricultural water. The assessment would include an evaluation of the water system, agricultural water use practices, crop characteristics, environmental conditions, potential impacts on source water by activities conducted on adjacent and nearby land, and other relevant factors, such as the results of optional testing. Covered farms would be required to conduct pre-harvest agricultural water assessments annually, and whenever a significant change occurs that affects the likelihood that a known or reasonably foreseeable hazard will be introduced into or onto produce or food contact surfaces.
The Agricultural Water Assessment Builder prompts users to answer questions and/or fill in information specific to their farms. Information entered into the tool is not shared with the FDA and will not be saved. However, users have the opportunity save or print the information they provide to their local computers.
This user-friendly tool incorporates information from the Agricultural Water Proposed Rule, the Final Qualitative Assessment of Risk to Public Health from On-Farm Contamination of Produce, and the 2015 Produce Safety Final Rule.
The development of this tool is consistent with FDA’s objectives in the New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint to look for smarter tools and approaches for food safety. FDA welcomes feedback on this optional tool, such as suggestions related to the tool’s functionality and, usability. Feedback on the tool can be sent to agwaterbuilder@fda.hhs.gov.
Thanks to everybody who joined in California’s annual celebration of agriculture on the west steps of the State Capitol at Ag Day 2022 yesterday. Inspection Services Division participation included our Office of Farm to Fork hosting a booth (top and middle left) where visitors could spin a wheel and say what they liked best about which fruit the pointer ended upon to earn a prize, as well as learn more about the California Farm to School Program, its soon-to-be-released Farm to School Incubator Grant Program request for proposals and other related grant opportunities to help all Californians benefit from nutritious, California-grown produce. In fact, the West Sacramento Urban Farm Mobile Farmers Market also at Ag Day (bottom left) was partly funded through the CDFA Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program, which also is preparing to accept grant applications this year. Also attending Ag Day to celebrate the bounty of California’s agricultural community with the farmers, ranchers and agricultural enthusiasts in attendance were Inspection Services Director Natalie Krout-Greenberg and Assistant Director Carla Bocanegra-Sanchez (R-L, right).
SACRAMENTO, March 22, 2022 – CDFA’s California Nutrition Incentive Program (CNIP) has announced seven projects selected to receive $750,000 in total grant awards to facilitate the purchase of California-grown fruit and vegetables at participating farmers’ markets by shoppers using the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition programs.
The new grantees will serve more than 100 Certified Farmers’ Markets in the Los Angeles area, the San Francisco Bay Area, and the counties of San Bernardino, Tulare, Butte, Shasta, and Tehama. A detailed list of grantees and project descriptions is available on the CNIP webpage.
CNIP addresses food insecurity and access to fresh fruits and vegetables among low-income Californians while simultaneously supporting and expanding markets for California farmers. CNIP currently offers nutrition incentives to CalFresh shoppers at more than 280 locations throughout the state, including Certified Farmers’ Markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, and retail outlets.
SACRAMENTO, March 21, 2022 – The California Department of Food and Agriculture Office of Farm to Fork (CDFA-F2F) announces it is seeking public comment until April 4 on the Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program request for proposals (RFP) for technical assistance providers.
The Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program (HRGP) funds energy-efficient refrigeration equipment in corner stores, small businesses and food donation programs in low-income and low-food access areas, so they may stock California-grown produce, nuts, dairy, meat, eggs, minimally processed and culturally appropriate foods. The 2021 State Budget allocated $20 million for HRGP expansion over two fiscal years and the first round of grants is directed toward establishing technical assistance providers (TAPs).
The purpose of the RFP released for public comment is to solicit TAPs to conduct activities in one or both of the following categories:
1. Outreach and Application Assistance: to promote the program to eligible applicants and assist interested parties to apply for equipment awards through CDFA-F2F in fall of 2022 and 2023; and
2. Technical Expertise: to provide subject matter expertise in refrigeration equipment, energy efficiency, global warming potential standards and/or best “healthy retail” practices, including stocking, promoting and selling fresh foods in a profitable and sustainable way.
The RFP is open for public comment from 8 a.m. PT March 21, 2022, until 5 p.m. PT April 4, 2022. CDFA-F2F will consider comments received before finalizing the RFP and when developing future HRGP RFPs.
Stakeholders may submit comments by email to cafarmtofork@cdfa.ca.gov. Include “Refrigeration RFP Comments” as the subject line.
CDFA-F2F also will hold a webinar for stakeholders to hear about the RFP and provide comments 3-5 p.m. Monday, March 28. See the Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program webpage webpage for details and to register for this online session.
California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Center for Analytical Chemistry (CAC) Food Safety Laboratory Senior Environmental Scientist Roland Carlson is published as a co-author in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry for the article, “Multilaboratory Collaborative Study of a Nontarget Data Acquisition for Target Analysis (nDATA) Workflow Using Liquid Chromatography-High-Resolution Accurate Mass Spectrometry for Pesticide Screening in Fruits and Vegetables.”
In this collaborative study conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, 25 laboratories participated to prove the effectiveness of a new method to identify pesticides on high-moisture produce including apple, banana, broccoli, carrot, grape, lettuce, orange, potato, strawberry and tomato. While the study demonstrated method performance using a small set of pesticides, the nDATA workflow has the ability to screen for thousands of pesticides, environmental contaminants, mycotoxins and veterinary drug residue in a single rapid analysis.
Nontarget data acquisition for target analysis (nDATA) workflows using liquid chromatography-high-resolution accurate mass (LC-HRAM) spectrometry, spectral screening software, and a compound database have generated interest because of their potential for screening of pesticides in foods. However, these procedures and particularly the instrument processing software need to be thoroughly evaluated before implementation in routine analysis. In this work, 25 laboratories participated in a collaborative study to evaluate an nDATA workflow on high moisture produce (apple, banana, broccoli, carrot, grape, lettuce, orange, potato, strawberry, and tomato). Samples were extracted in each laboratory by quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS), and data were acquired by ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled to a high-resolution quadrupole Orbitrap (QOrbitrap) or quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) mass spectrometer operating in full-scan mass spectrometry (MS) data-independent tandem mass spectrometry (LC-FS MS/DIA MS/MS) acquisition mode. The nDATA workflow was evaluated using a restricted compound database with 51 pesticides and vendor processing software. Pesticide identifications were determined by retention time (tR, ±0.5 min relative to the reference retention times used in the compound database) and mass errors (δM) of the precursor (RTP, δM ≤ ±5 ppm) and product ions (RTPI, δM ≤ ±10 ppm). The elution profiles of all 51 pesticides were within ±0.5 min among 24 of the participating laboratories. Successful screening was determined by false positive and false negative rates of <5% in unfortified (pesticide-free) and fortified (10 and 100 μg/kg) produce matrices. Pesticide responses were dependent on the pesticide, matrix, and instrument. The false negative rates were 0.7 and 0.1% at 10 and 100 μg/kg, respectively, and the false positive rate was 1.1% from results of the participating LC-HRAM platforms. Further evaluation was achieved by providing produce samples spiked with pesticides at concentrations blinded to the laboratories. Twenty-two of the 25 laboratories were successful in identifying all fortified pesticides (0–7 pesticides ranging from 5 to 50 μg/kg) for each produce sample (99.7% detection rate). These studies provide convincing evidence that the nDATA comprehensive approach broadens the screening capabilities of pesticide analyses and provide a platform with the potential to be easily extended to a larger number of other chemical residues and contaminants in foods.
Citation
Wong, J., Wang, J., Chang, J., Chow, W., Carlson, R., et. al, “Multilaboratory Collaborative Study of a Nontarget Data Acquisition for Target Analysis (nDATA) Workflow Using Liquid Chromatography-High-Resolution Accurate Mass Spectrometry for Pesticide Screening in Fruits and Vegetables.” J. Agric. Food Chem. 2021, 69, 44, 13200-13216; https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jafc.1c04437.
California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Commercial Feed Regulatory Program Environmental Scientist Samantha Moran-Defty describes in a webinar how upcycling agricultural byproducts to livestock feed helps divert products from landfills to their highest and best use. Moran-Defty also discusses the common pathways byproducts take in order to get to livestock throughout California. Moran-Defty is presenting in Traditional Organics Recycling Solutions for SB1383 – Series 1: Traditional Organic Material Pathways and Facilities, the first of a two-part webinar series hosted by Diversion Strategies as a joint-funded project through CDFA, the California Grain and Feed Association, the California Farm Bureau and the Pacific Coast Renderers Association. The second part of the webinar series, Traditional Organics Recycling Solutions for SB1383 – Series 2: Maintaining Agriculture as a Municipal Recycling Solution, features presentations from industry experts on the implementation of traditional and innovative solutions to help jurisdictions achieve Senate Bill 1383 compliance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Center for Analytical Chemistry Branch Chief Barzin Moradi, Ph.D., recently completed the UC Davis Professional Coaching for Life and Work Certificate Program. During the six-month program, Barzin demonstrated coaching abilities at the Professional Certified Coach level.
“To be successful as an individual, we need the self-awareness to recognize the opportunities and threats and the mental capacity to change the way we do things that are not working anymore,” Barzin said of why he enrolled in the coaching program. “Insight alone is not going to push us forward in our work and life. We need to tap into our personal power. Coaching can do this through a deliberate focus on our inside, finding ‘what is right’ and using that to our advantage.”
Barzin plans to utilize newly learned coaching skills in his professional life by focusing on CDFA staff development.
“Whether it is in the lab or our entire department, the biggest resource that we lean on is staff,” he said. “We truly depend on staff ingenuity, expertise and innovation to adapt to new environments and technology. We need to focus on staff development and be intentional about it, one independent coaching session at a time.”
This is a blog for the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Inspection Services Division (ISD). Read here for the latest news about how ISD is providing Californians professional services that support and contribute to a safe, abundant and quality food supply; environmentally sound agricultural practices; and an equitable marketplace for California agriculture.
