PMA field tour brings produce safety insights to policymakers

Produce Marketing Association (PMA) senior staff co-hosted local farm and packinghouse visits on Aug. 5 for FDA’s new Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine Stephen Ostroff, and other senior FDA officials.

The tours in Delaware, co-hosted with Delaware Department of Agriculture, were designed to inform senior FDA policymakers and regulators about real-world challenges facing the fresh produce supply chain, to help them make practical decisions regarding fresh produce safety and implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

Ostroff was accompanied by senior officials from FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) including: Samir Assar, Ph.D., produce safety division director; Ted Elkin, CFSAN deputy director for regulatory affairs; and Rebecca Buckner, interim director for FSMA operations. Leanne Skelton, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service liaison to FDA, also participated in the tour.

Produce industry experts participating in the tour included: Cathy Burns, PMA president; Jim Gorny, Ph.D. PMA vice president of food safety and technology; Bob Whitaker, Ph.D., PMA chief science & technology officer; Ed Kee, Delaware agriculture secretary; and produce safety extension specialists from University of Delaware and Virginia Tech.

The group toured Coastal Growers in Laurel, a watermelon producer, and Fifer Orchards in Wyoming, which produces a variety of fruits and vegetables including apples, berries and corn on 2,000 acres. Growers and regulators discussed current produce-safety practices, FSMA implementation, and business challenges facing local fruit and vegetable producers. A key message delivered by those producers, according to a press release, was that they know food safety begins on the farm, and they take seriously their role to provide wholesome, safe produce to consumers because their families and businesses depend on it.