Food-Safety Practices and Rule Coverage Vary Among Post-Harvest Handlers of Fresh Produce, ERS Study Finds

After Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) created rules to better prevent the spread of foodborne illness. The rules pertain to nearly every aspect of the food supply chain: food as it is grown, harvested, and packed on farms; food as it is processed after harvest; and food stored, transported, and handled by distributors and retailers. Two of those rules are the Preventive Controls Rule, which covers facilities that process commodities into different products, and the Produce Safety Rule, which covers farms that grow fruits or vegetables and may also perform post-harvest activities such as sorting, washing, or packing. For produce, the supply chain is made up of a diverse variety of operations, some of which were more prepared for the new food safety rules than others.