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<ol> <li>To extend information about Fresh Produce Food Safety ('FPFS') programs and principles defined in the 'Guide' to commercial fresh fruit and vegetable handlers in the Southeastern United States,
<li>To provide hands-on assistance with USDA GAPs Certification Program implementation to commercial growers in the region, and
<li>To conduct research exploring the link between foodborne pathogenic organisms and the influence of packing procedures on survival of foodborne pathogens.</ol>
The number of reported fresh produce-related disease outbreaks per year doubled between the reporting periods 1973-1987 and 1988-1992 (Tauxe, et. al., 1997). Substantial increases were observed again in 1995 (NACMCF, 1988). Organisms causing most outbreaks are Shigella, Escherichia coli 0157:H7, Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes(Lund and Snowden, 2000). In another striking example, 1991 and 1993 outbreaks of Salmonellosis in the Midwestern U.S. were linked to the consumption of raw tomatoes originating from a single packinghouse in South Carolina. Only recently has the public realized that more people get sick from contaminated produce than get 'sick' from tainted meat. For instance, a study by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (DeWaal and Barlow, 2002) found 10,504 cases of food poisoning from produce between 1990 and 2001, compared with 6,089 for meat and 4,279 for poultry.
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This Project addresses this national food safety and a related food security problem. It does so by using an integrated research, extension and teaching program to expand a program we developed during FY's 2000-2002 and join that program with the new USDA 'GAPs Grower Certification Program'. The Project will expand the now-established South Region fresh produce food security network to include consumers, hard to reach and at-risk populations and help form new federal/state agency linkages.
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The Project is an integrated, multi-state, cooperative, multi-functional, multi-institutional, and multi-disciplinary effort. It employs extension, teaching and research focusing on: (1) applied food safety research and (2) development, implementation and evaluation of innovative food safety-based educational endeavors. The Project directly addresses national food safety "priority issues". Project design incorporates food safety and food chain security as focal points of educational efforts, then initiates practical, producer-level research, teaching, and extension whereby food handling and safety issues are addressed in a systems context.