USDA Ends Plan For National Leafy Greens Food Safety Program

USDA has announced it will terminate plans for a national leafy greens marketing agreement. According to a blog post from Scott Horsfall, chief executive officer of the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, a few years ago the California Leafy Greens Products Handlers and Marketers Agreement (LGMA) participated in an effort that would enable leafy greens producers from across the country to voluntarily sign on to a food safety program similar to the one in California. This proposed program was called the National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (NLGMA).

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According to Horsfall, “the proposed NLGMA was to be operated with oversight from the USDA and, like our own California program, would utilize government auditors to verify a set of science-based food safety practices was being followed on leafy greens farms throughout the nation. The California LGMA was in support of this program along with Western Growers, the Farm Bureau and several other farm groups.”

Today, he says, the USDA issued a federal register notice terminating the proposal to create this NLGMA. “We believe the USDA’s action is appropriate,” Horsfall said in the blog post. “A lot has changed since the NLGMA program was conceptualized, largely because we now have the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Because of this new federal law, produce farmers around the nation will be regulated by FDA to ensure their products are safe.”

Click here to read the complete post.

Source: Scott Horsfall, LGMA

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