OLATHE, Kan. — Kansans will soon be strolling the aisles at their local farmers markets, deciding which tomatoes look best, what herbs look freshest and which fruit works in their favorite recipe.
To help ensure those foods are safe and wholesome to eat, Kansas State University and the Kansas Department of Agriculture have scheduled food safety workshops to help familiarize growers who are selling fresh produce with the ins and outs of safety regulations and how to make sure their farms are in compliance.
The Food Safety Modernization Act or FSMA was signed into law in 2011 with a focus on preventing foodborne illnesses rather than reacting to them.
What’s at stake? About 48 million people – or one in six – get sick from foodborne illness every year, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Thousands are hospitalized because of it and 3,000 of them die.
“It’s a significant health burden that’s often preventable,” said Londa Nwadike, consumer food safety specialist with K-State Research and Extension. “We work with produce growers who are selling at farmers markets and other outlets to make sure they’re growing and handling produce in ways that minimize contamination and get it to consumers as safely as possible.”
Many growers don’t know, for instance, that washing produce after harvest is not required by regulations, and if done incorrectly, can cause more food safety problems than not washing the produce at all, Nwadike said.
FSMA Produce Safety Rule Grower Training events will be held from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. unless otherwise noted:
- April 5, 2019 – Wichita, Kansas (starts at 8:30)
- April 15, 2019 – Bird City, Kansas
- May 16, 2019 – Parsons, Kansas
- July 11, 2019 – Manhattan, Kansas
- Oct. 3, 2019 – Dodge City, Kansas
- Nov 15, 2019 – Wichita, Kansas
Information and online registration for the FSMA training and other produce-related workshops is available at https://bit.ly/2SylnId or by contacting Cal Jamerson, K-State extension associate in produce safety, at agri@ksu.edu or 913-307-7394.
— Mary Lou Peter, K-State Research and Extension
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