Fresh Produce GAPs Workshop. Photo by Diane Ducharme.
November/December 2015 — NC Growing Together is helping to advance fresh produce food safety work statewide. Working in partnership with North Carolina State University, North Carolina Cooperative Extension, NC Cooperative County Centers, and the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, NCGT has been sponsoring Fresh Produce Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) workshops throughout the state.
“This workshop series informs growers about practical tools to identify food safety hazards on their farm, explores the GAP certification process, and provides guided assistance in the creation and implementation of a customized food safety plan,” explains Diane Ducharme, NC Cooperative Extension Associate in Horticulture & Food Safety and the GAPs Program Coordinator. More information and workshop dates through February 2016 can be found here.
To accommodate busy growers’ schedules, a new web-based course has been created as well. Through NCGT support, the Fresh Produce GAPs Workshop Series will be offered online, free of cost, to North Carolina growers. This new web-based course will allow growers to cover the same material as the workshop series, in their own time and at their own pace. More information about the free online workshops can be found here.
With recent food safety regulations passed under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), “the writing was on the wall,” says Ducharme. “I am happy to say that the NCGT project served as the catalyst for discussions on building capacity around food safety in light of FSMA and increasing market requirements,” she says.
NC Cooperative Extension will soon be hiring eight new area specialized agents who will focus on food safety issues: three in Family and Consumer Sciences, two in Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences, two in Horticultural Science, and one in Animal Science. “It represents the different responsibilities within the food supply chain affected by FSMA regulations,” explains Ducharme.
NCGT also partners with the NC Fresh Produce Safety Task Force. The goal of the Task Force is to ensure that North Carolina has a competitive, vibrant and safe fresh produce industry supported through the research, teaching and outreach programs of NC State University, N.C. A&T State University, NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Farm Bureau and industry groups. The task force offers guidance and resources on Food Safety issues.
More Fresh Produce GAPs information and resources can be found on the NCGT website’s Resources for Producers page, or visit NC Cooperative Extension’s Fresh Produce Safety website.
For information about how growers can register for free for the Online Fresh Produce GAPs Workshop Series, please contact Diane Ducharme at diane_ducharme@ncsu.edu.
This article originally appeared in the November/December 2015 NC Growing Together Newsletter.