An official website of the United States government.
Small-scale fruit and vegetable producers, using conventional and organic approaches, must establish and implement food safety standards for their operations from pre-harvest through post-harvest stages. These standards are customized to each operation, but include some elements that are common across all operations. Research and education are needed to determine limits for microbiological parameters for irrigation, agricultural sprays, and wash water quality as well as soil amendments. Graduates with broad training in pre- and post-harvest operations, food safety, and agriculture/horticulture (including crop, soil, water, and environmental factors) are needed by the fresh produce industry to staff future operations/facilities. The extension of research and best practices knowledge to local farm and networked marketers of produce is needed to sustain productivity within a framework of environmental and resource conservation and stewardship. <P>This project will: 1) strengthen the food safety education capacity of faculty at UMES through specific training in Rapid Methods for Food Microbiology; 2) develop and use an integrated educational program on food safety of fresh fruits and vegetables at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) by delivering two new courses: Microbial Safety of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables and Rapid Methods for Pathogen Detection; 3) strengthen faculty capacity to utilize and incorporate digital and alternative teaching methods in new course materials developed on the safety of fresh produce for UMES and University of Delaware (UDel), with guidance from UDel faculty; and 4) train at least two faculty, two graduate, and 20 undergraduate students in microbiological and research aspects of food safety of fresh fruits and vegetables from farm-to-fork. This teaching project addresses the need for state-of-the-art, authoritative information and instructional approaches through the cooperative efforts of UDel and USDA-ARS with UMES.
Non-Technical Summary:<br/>
Small-scale fruit and vegetable producers, using conventional and organic approaches, must establish and implement food safety standards for their operations from pre-harvest through post-harvest stages. These standards are customized to each operation, but include some elements that are common across all operations. Research and education are needed to determine limits for microbiological parameters for irrigation, agricultural sprays, and wash water quality as well as soil amendments. Graduates with broad training in pre- and post-harvest operations, food safety, and agriculture/horticulture (including crop, soil, water, and environmental factors) are needed by the fresh produce industry to staff future operations/facilities. The extension of research and best practices knowledge to local farm and networked marketers of produce is needed to sustain productivity within a framework of environmental and resource conservation and stewardship. This project will: 1) strengthen the food safety education capacity of faculty at UMES through specific training in Rapid Methods for Food Microbiology; 2) develop and use an integrated educational program on food safety of fresh fruits and vegetables at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) by delivering two new courses: Microbial Safety of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables and Rapid Methods for Pathogen Detection; 3) strengthen faculty capacity to utilize and incorporate digital and alternative teaching methods in new course materials developed on the safety of fresh produce for UMES and University of Delaware (UDel), with guidance from UDel faculty; and 4) train at least two faculty, two graduate, and 20 undergraduate students in microbiological and research aspects of food safety of fresh fruits and vegetables from farm-to-fork. This teaching project addresses the need for state-of-the-art, authoritative information and instructional approaches through the cooperative efforts of UDel and USDA-ARS with UMES.
<P>
Approach:<br/>
Overall Approach: Increase interdisciplinary training and knowledge in food safety and microbiology of farm-fresh fruits and vegetables to provide graduates with basic knowledge, skills, and experience to apply to fresh produce production and minimal processing by developing and teaching two undergraduate and graduate student level classes on food safety.
<P>Specific Methodology:
<br/>(1) Develop and teach a new course, Microbial Safety of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables to supplement and bridge students from the very basic lower level microbiology course to the existing curriculum currently available to UMES.
<br/>(2) Develop and teach a new course, "Rapid Methods for Pathogen Detection, to provide much needed hands-on training in modern microbiological laboratory analytical procedures based strongly on molecular detection methods.
<br/>(3) Develop and utilize a variety of beyond-the-classroom experiential learning opportunities for students enrolled in the two classes and for graduate students pursuing agricultural microbiology and food science and food safety. We expect that this will include fresh produce farm and food industry visits coordinated by Ms. Cotton at UMES to provide a direct mechanism for students and faculty to interact with producers and food industry packers/ processors in real-world production practice situations and enterprises. This will show students and faculty the dynamic nature of the nexus between open-field production and food safety and will illustrate directly the impacts and hurdles that growers and processors must address when implementing food safety protection practices.