Two years after the Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law, the Food and Drug Administration has published its proposed rule for food safety on produce farms. The comment period closes on May 16.

The proposed rule exempts farms with less than $25,000 annually in food sales. It also exempts those who grow only products that are rarely consumed raw, such as potatoes or green beans for canning. And it provides a partial exemption for farms with less than $500,000 annually in sales if more than 50% of those sales are to “qualified end users” which is defined as either a consumer (in any location) or a restaurant or retail food establishment located in the same state as the farm or not more than 275 miles away from the farm. It’s called a partial exemption because FDA can withdraw it if the farm is linked to an outbreak or if the farm’s conditions or conduct could lead to an outbreak.

In other words, very few market farmers will be directly affected by the proposed rule. In fact, FDA says that 79% of U.S. produce growers will be exempt from its oversight under the law. It estimates that 190,111 farms grow produce, including 475 sprout growers. Only 40,211 produce farms and 285 sprout farms are fully covered and will have to implement all of the standards outlined in the proposed rule.

Some in the produce industry and consumer advocacy groups are already making noise about trying to expand the rule to smaller growers, arguing that small farms can cause foodborne illness as easily as large farms, or possibly more so. The exemption, though, was written into the law by Congress as the Tester-Hagan amendment, which was designed to reduce the burden and expense on small family farms. Presumably, revising the exemption would likewise take an act of Congress.

Buyers are the issue
Despite the broad exemption for small farms, many buyers are expected to demand compliance with the rules from every supplier, regardless of size. Wegmans Food Markets has already stated that it will buy its fruits and vegetables only from producers who comply with the new rules. David Corsi, vice president for produce and floral operations at Wegmans, said that as many as 40% of its current 540 produce suppliers are small enough to qualify for the exemption. “To us, it doesn’t matter what size you are. We don’t allow these exemptions,” Corsi was quoted in an article on The Hill website.

Because the FDA rule won’t be implemented for several years, growers now have two levels of food safety compliance they can achieve. The lower level is to write a Food Safety Plan for the farm, based on Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs). Anyone can do that immediately as a way of learning about best practices and assessing what changes need to be made to comply with them. Most of the practices are fairly easy to implement, such as training employees to wash hands properly, sanitizing food-contact surfaces, and keeping records of procedures.

The higher level is to get a third-party agency to certify GAPs compliance, a process that could involve considerable expense if the farm needs infrastructure improvements such as deer fencing, excluding birds from the packing shed, new harvest tubs and wash sinks, and handwashing stations for workers. Many other recommended practices come at a cost, such as packing in new, rather than re-used, waxed boxes.

Growers are advised to get clear guidance from buyers about which level of compliance they require. See the resources at the end of the article for help in learning about GAPs and creating a Food Safety Plan.

Wegmans  already requires GAPs certification from suppliers of what it calls “high-priority items” such as lettuce and leafy greens, tomatoes, netted melons like cantaloupes, herbs, and green onions. Ironically, an organic spinach and spring mix blend from Wegmans was recalled late last year after it was implicated in an outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 that sickened at least 28 people and put 10 in the hospital.

What’s in the FDA rule?
The proposed rule identifies five potential sources of microbial contamination of produce:
Equipment, tools and buildings; Biological soil amendments; Domesticated and wild animals; Workers’ health and hygiene;Water for irrigation and washing produce.

For each section it lists key requirements in general terms; it doesn’t require specific practices, but leaves it to the grower to comply in any way that meets the objective of protecting produce from possible contamination. For example, a key requirement for buildings is: “You must take reasonable measures to protect against contamination of covered produce from domesticated animals and pests.” That could be as simple as keeping your pets in the house or as complicated as enclosing an open-air packing shed. It gets a little more specific on the subject of wild animals: “If under the circumstances there is a reasonable probability that animal intrusion will contaminate covered produce, you would be required to monitor for evidence of animal intrusion immediately prior to harvest and, as needed, during the growing season. If you see evidence of animal intrusion, such as significant quantities of animals, animal excreta, or crop destruction via grazing, you must evaluate whether the covered produce can be safely harvested.”

In addition to identifying key requirements, the FDA rule improves traceability of food, provides for more testing, and gives the FDA greater authority to order recalls when contamination is suspected.

Resources for small farms
If your farm is exempt from the FDA rule because of size, and you don’t sell to anyone requiring GAPs compliance, you may still be affected by food safety issues. States and local governments are allowed to regulate small farms. The issue is likely to be raised in legislatures and local governing bodies, especially if there is a serious outbreak of foodborne illness traced back to a small farm.

Just as the California leafy greens industry decided to regulate itself after an E. coli spinach outbreak killed three people and sickened hundreds in 2006, small-farm groups are encouraging all growers to take steps to keep produce safe. (Again, ironically, Canadian authorities said that all California lettuce shipped into Canada must be certified under the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA), a voluntary food safety program, which means the lettuce believed to be the source of a Canadian outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 would have carried the LGMA seal. That outbreak sickened 28 people in January.

Considerable resources are being devoted to workshops and publications about food safety. One of the largest is the Wholesale Success training by FamilyFarmed.org, which received a grant from USDA to produce 25 trainings in 14 states for small to mid-size growers to teach best practices in food safety, postharvest handling, and packing produce. More than 2,500 fruit and vegetable growers are expected to take the training this year. Most of the Upper Midwest and Midwest trainings have already occurred, but you can check for upcoming dates at www.familyfarmed.org/wholesalesuccess/ Growers who attend the trainings get a free copy of the 312-page Wholesale Success manual. Or you can purchase the manual for $80 from the same website.

Other resources are available from Cornell University’s GAPs program, including a list of workshops in New York, an online workshop, and the excellent publication “Food Safety Begins on the Farm.” ATTRA, the federally funded information service for sustainable farmers, keeps a calendar of events including food safety trainings. www.attra.ncat.org.

Lynn Byczynski is the editor and
publisher of Growing for Market.