CDFA’s Produce Safety Program recognizes September as National Food Safety Education Month.
California is committed to keeping our food safe. In recognition of National Food Safety Education Month, CDFA is sharing more information about the programs that help make sure food grown and processed in California is as safe as possible.
As presented in a previous CDFA Planting Seeds blog, our Produce Safety Program protects California food safety through conducting more than 2,770 on-farm inspections since 2019 and offering outreach and education. But what do these processes include?
PSP Farm Inspection Process
A CDFA Produce Safety Program (PSP) inspection, conducted under authority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), starts with an inspector contacting a farm to confirm it is covered under the federal Food Safety Modernization Act’s Produce Safety Rule (PSR). The inspector then asks questions about the timeframe of on-farm activities covered under the PSR (growing, harvesting, packing and holding of covered produce) to appropriately schedule an inspection.
A PSP inspection takes a systems-based approach, where inspectors observe as many farm activities as possible and ask numerous questions to better understand a farm’s processes and approaches to food safety at every step. Required inspection elements include: personnel qualifications and training; health and hygiene; agricultural water; biological soil amendments of animal origin; domesticated and wild animal intrusion; growing, harvesting, packing and holding activities; equipment, tools, buildings and sanitation; analytical methods used for testing; and records related to these topics.
Observing farm activities and conversations with the responsible personnel on the farm helps an inspector evaluate potential food-safety risks on the farm (including due to adjacent land use) and demonstrate the farm’s understanding of those risks, as well as measures taken to address them.
PSP Outreach and Education
To ensure farms covered by the Produce Safety Rule know with what food safety regulations they’re required to comply, they must have an individual employed on the farm who has completed an FDA-approved Produce Safety Rule Grower Training or equivalent course. PSP provides the Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training Course to ensure California farmers are properly trained.
CDFA’s Produce Safety Program also offers non-regulatory On-Farm Readiness Reviews for small and very small farms to gain a better understanding of what to expect during a routine inspection. Visit PSP’s Educate webpage for more information.
For an extra level of outreach and education in helping farmers be compliant with the Produce Safety Rule, CDFA’s Technical Assistance Program offers outreach in multiple languages. Through an agreement with the University of California Cooperative Extension, advisors and community educators fluent in multiple languages further promote the success of small-scale farmers in following safe farming practices.
Through inspections, outreach, education and inspections, CDFA’s Produce Safety Program is proud to partner with California’s vibrant agriculture industry in providing safe food to California and the nation.
Click here to view the original CDFA Planting Seeds blog post.
