Improving Public Health Protection Through Coordinated Efforts Among Three State Agencies to Assess, Educate, Train and Oversee The Implementation of The Fda Produce Safety Rule.

New Hampshire Produce Safety Rule Implementation ProposalPROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT:The State of New Hampshire DHHS/DPHS will educate and implement FDAs Produce SafetyRules through coordinated efforts among three state agencies/organizations. Working as acollaborative team, the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension (UNHCE) and theDepartment of Agriculture, Markets and Food (DAMF), will assess, educate, train and overseethe implementation of the FDA Produce Safety Rule (PSR) at the state and local level. We willdevelop a farm friendly food safety framework that supports a well-informed food productioncommunity about good agricultural practices that can improve produce safety. Through theeducation and implementation of established safe growing and harvesting practices for allfarms, the goal is to improve public health protection and minimize the risk of foodborne illness.The promotion of food safety best practices will provide reasonable assurances that the produceis not adulterated by preventing the introduction of biological hazards during the growing,harvesting, packing and holding of produce. The benefit to farms of adopting PSR practices willbe strengthened public confidence in locally produced fruit and vegetables.The expected outcomes of the proposed project is to increase the safety of the produce supplyby teaching and enforcing safe growing practices consistently across various levels of produceproducers. Ultimately this can result in a reduction of food borne illness for consumers ofproduce.The specific objective is twofold:1. To establish a system of education, training and usage of improved safe growingpractices2. To assess, measure and enforce safe growing practices for the farms to which the PSRapplies