Ensuring Quality and Safety in the U.S. Fresh Vegetable Supply Chain

The overall objective of this proposal is to provide a practical assessment and mitigation model that quantifies foodborne illness contamination risks along the produce supply chain and identifies prevention and mitigation strategies that minimize the economic losses resulting from those risks.The specific objectives are to identify: (1) the most efficient path through which fresh produce flows from farms to consumers in the U.S.; (2) optimal testing locations and testing intensity at each location for mitigating food contamination and negative consequences; (3) the quantity, spread and dispersion of the contaminated products and infection expansion in contamination incidences; (4) how a traceability system can be built and how it works in the incidence of produce contamination; (5) how traceability and testing provide incentives to producers to improve product safety; (6) how policy interventions and technology innovation can provide the appropriate incentives for behavioral changes of supply chain participants that enhance food safety outcomes.