USDA, FDA Coordinating Efforts To Ensure Food Safety

By Growing Produce Staff|February 22, 2010

The USDA and FDA are working together to achieve the goals of enhancing the safety and quality of fresh produce in ways that take into account the wide diversity of farming operations. While USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is in the midst of evaluating a proposed marketing agreement for the leafy green industry, the FDA is currently developing a proposed produce safety regulation. It is expected these products will take into account the diverse nature of farming operations and that any marketing agreement would conform to any regulations that may be promulgated by FDA.

The success of these efforts depends on the feedback and comments received from growers and other produce safety stakeholders. AMS will continue to review the comments that have been submitted to USDA on the proposed marketing agreement. To further inform its planned rulemaking, the FDA is announcing the establishment of a docket to receive information about current practices and conditions for the production and packing of fresh produce and practical approaches to improving produce safety. The FDA will work with AMS to have the testimony from the AMS hearings placed in the FDA docket for consideration by the FDA. The FDA encourages all interested persons to submit information they believe will inform the development of safety standards for fresh produce at the farm and packinghouse, as well as strategies and cooperative efforts to ensure compliance with those standards.

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