Leafy Greens Group Releases First Audit Report

Seven months after government inspectors began conducting mandatory food safety audits for members of the California Leafy Greens Handler Marketing Agreement (LGMA), the organization has issued its first status report. The report details all audit findings from July through December 2007 as well as other actions undertaken since this unique and unprecedented food safety program was established.

“This report underscores the huge strides made by California’s leafy greens industry in the last year,” said Scott Horsfall, chief executive officer of LGMA. “The most important news, of course, is that there were no reported food borne illnesses associated with California leafy greens in 2007.”

The LGMA was formed in the spring of 2007 in response to a foodborne illness outbreak in September 2006. Operating with oversight from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the LGMA is a mechanism for verifying through mandatory government audits that farmers follow accepted food safety practices for lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens.

“The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement is an appropriate response to reduce food safety outbreaks associated with leafy greens,” said Trevor Suslow, Extension specialist with the University of California, Davis. He was part of a scientific panel which has reviewed the LGMA Status Report. “The LGMA clearly has the right elements in place with a structure which includes a government auditing program, a body to act on infractions and a system of consequences which have financial implications for those found to be out of compliance.”

The Status Report released by the LGMA provides summary information from these mandatory audits and as well as other food safety activities which have taken place since the LGMA’s creation. Among the report’s highlights:

-368 audits of leafy greens farms by trained and certified government inspectors were conducted from July 23, 2007, to Dec. 31, 2007.

-The audit includes five specific areas of inspection with several “checkpoints” that inspectors must review for compliance. There are a total of 184 checkpoints the government inspectors must verify during an audit. The audits determined that the overall compliance with the LGMA food safety practices is really quite high with LGMA member companies being in compliance with 99.3 percent of the checkpoints audited.

-Those audits resulted in 457 citations for non-conformities. None involved shipping unsafe product. Many of these citations involved incorrect or incomplete record-keeping or minor infractions that could be fixed on site in the presence of government inspectors.

-Members of the LGMA have significantly enhanced internal food safety systems involved in the production of leafy greens and food safety expenditures by LGMA member companies have increased by 201 percent since September 2006.

Included in the report is also an explanation of the LGMA structure and procedures, details about the mandatory government audit program, the audit results and a survey of food safety practices initiated by LGMA members in the past year. An analysis by the panel of food safety scientists who reviewed the LGMA Status Report is also provided.

To download a copy of the report, visit www.caleafygreens.ca.gov.