CLEANING AND SANITIZING SURFACES ON PRODUCE FARMS: OPTIMIZING WHAT, HOW, AND WHEN

Thelong-term goalof this project is to promote and provide practical and effective solutions for preventing and controlling microbiological contamination of food contact surfaces in produce farm environments. To do this effectively, we propose a step-wise approach with these specific objectives:Objective 1. Engage with growers and packinghouses to collect information on the diversity of food contact surfaces in fruit and mixed vegetable operations, to characterize cleaning and sanitizing practices, and to determine current information gaps.Objective 2. Quantify the "real-world" organic and microbial loads of food contact surfaces before and after cleaning and sanitation procedures on produce farms.Objective 3.Evaluate the efficacy of cleaning and sanitizing procedures for challenging food contact surfaces, and optimize decontamination procedures for each surface type.Objective 4. Develop, deliver and evaluate the effectiveness of workshops to train produce growers and packinghouses to incorporate effective cleaning and sanitizing procedures in their operations and verify the effectiveness of these procedures through environmental monitoring programs.