The Food Safety Dish is a production dishing on all things food safety, brought to you by National Farmers Union's Local Food Safety Collaborative. We talk with farmer and expert voices on their subject specialties: sharing practical advice, wisdom, and how to incorporate good food safety practices into your own growing operation.
Anita Adalja, founder of Not Our Farm, sat down with the food safety team to discuss how community care and considerations for farmworkers--the heart of farm operations--lead to healthy work environments, healthy food, happy people, and beyond!ResourcesNot Our Farm WebsiteNot Our Farm Zine: A Guide to Working on FarmsFair Share CSA CoalitionHelp us continually improve! Respond to the Food Safety Dish Survey!
The food safety team sat down with Donna Clements, Produce Safety Alliance Coordinator and Northeast Regional Extension Associate. We discuss what sanitizers are, how to choose and use them wisely, and about plenty of tools and resources to guide you in your practice.ResourcesProduce Safety Alliance: https://cals.cornell.edu/produce-safety-allianceIntroduction to Selecting an EPA-Labeled Sanitizer: https://resources.producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/documents/Sanitizer-Factsheet.pdfUVM Sanitizer Dose Calculator: https://ageng.w3.uvm.edu/sanitizer/index.htmlUVM Safely Dispensing Sanitizers: https://blog.uvm.edu/cwcallah/2020/12/15/safely-dispensing-sanitizers/National GAPs program Decision Tree on Postharvest Water Use (includes SOP template): https://cals.cornell.edu/national-good-agricultural-practices-program/resources/educational-materials/decision-trees/postharvest-waterFood Safety Considerations for Postharvest Washing of Produce and Sanitation of Packing Areas: https://www.foodsafetyclearinghouse.org/sites/default/files/files/fs353e.pdfPSA Sanitizer tool (opens as an Excel sheet): https://resources.producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/documents/PSA-Labeled-Sanitizers-for-Produce.xlsx
Compost... one of the great wonders of the world! We got the dish from Seattleites Nathan Stacey, Farm Programs Director at Tilth Alliance and Liv Johansson, Compost Facility Operator at the Woodland Park Zoo & Vice President of the Washington Organics Recycling Council (WORC.) We talked soil science, the basics of compost, the coveted "Zoo Doo" compost program at Woodland Park Zoo, and how compost's myriad of uses bring bounty and stability to not only farms, but also help the earth as we know it spin round!Resources:Washington State University Compost Mix CalculatorTilth Alliance ResourcesWORC ResourcesSoils for Salmon
Have you pondered ponics systems? Sean Fogarty is a Research Specialist at the Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety focused on-farm produce safety in the Northeast, and hydroponic and aquaponic food safety nationwide. We talked all about aquaponics & hydroponics, risks to consider, and how interested growers can venture into ponics operations of their own. Some post-show notes from Sean:When recirculating a nutrient solution, water treatment of some form will be required to maintain optimal water quality (chemically, physically, and biologically). At the most basic this includes physical filtration to remove particulates from the recirculating flow.Accumulation of organic matter (OM) in the nutrient solution is something to avoid, whereas in soil-based farming you want to increase OM. There are a few ways to measure the OM accumulation, the simplest of which is turbidity. People also use ORP (oxygen reduction potential) as an indicator of nutrient solution quality.Even for exempt farms and produce, it is a good idea to prevent contact between the recirculating water and the edible portions of the produce. This reduces the chance of a single contamination event spreading to the rest of the system.Resources:Factsheets - Produce Safety in Hydroponic and Aquaponic Operations https://go.uvm.edu/ponicsCleaning and SanitizingFish Health and HandlingHarvest and Postharvest HandlingPersonal Health and HygieneWildlife and Domesticated AnimalsHydroponic Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) Course - Ohio State University ($150 fee)Qualifies as “GAPs training” for USDA GAP/GHP Audit or as “Worker Education and Training” for GAPs Harmonized Food Safety Standard USDA Checklist and Harmonized GAP+ AuditCEA Food Safety CoalitionIndustry group that developed supplemental guidance for CEA operations undergoing or preparing for Global Food Safety Initiative or equivalent auditsCEA Food Safety Certified label and certification information
Fellow local food safety collaborators, Kentucky Horticulture Council's Dakota Moore and Dani D'Antonio, dive in to the world of water testing--various sources, how to test your water, and best practices to ensure your water is continually safe with minimal risk.Kentucky Horticulture Council Resources:Ag Water Sampling & Testing Resources: https://kyhortcouncil.org/ag-water-sampling-testing/Ag Water Testing How-To Videos: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVyJ0VH6aG-zE3Nq6HOCC0b-XuMFMFo7QNECAFS Water Testing: https://go.uvm.edu/waterlabmap