The Fresh Produce Safety Training program has updated their brochure to include a new team member, Abigail Snyder. She is a Food Safety Extension Field Specialist in the Department of Food Science and Technology. Other team members and contact information about food safety training is in the brochure.
The OSU Fruit and Vegetable Safety Team educates growers of fresh produce about Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)-Fresh Produce Safety Rules. The team strives to ensure a strong scientific basis behind the best practices taught and recommended by the team, provide helpful tools and resources to develop risk assessments and food safety plans for the farm, and promote high-quality, safe produce from Ohio growers.
The OSU Fruit and Vegetable Safety Team was formed as a result of requests from producers for food safety education programs. These initial programs demonstrated a need for outreach activities focused on fresh produce safety and led to an Excellence in Engagement Grant that enabled the team to expand our educational programs statewide. Today the interdisciplinary team consists of OSU faculty, State Extension Specialists, Extension Educators, and Field Specialists. Team members conduct research to improve best management practices, deliver food safety trainings and provide support for developing and implementing food safety plans. In 2015 and 2016 the team trained 1257 fresh produce growers on GAPs and 92 growers on FSMA-Fresh Produce Rules.