On June 4, 11:30 a.m. 1 p.m., the Central Valley Food Safety Committee, in partnership with the College of the Sequoias Training Resource Center, is offering a free hybrid meeting for food safety professionals and consultants. The event will be located at the Visalia Convention Center and Live Streamed.
Bob
Continue Reading Free food safety session — The Future of Produce Safety: Of This I am Certain . . .
Produce industry leaders say work to review and improve food safety measures for romaine lettuce and other leafy greens is on track and should mostly be wrapped up in March 2020, two years after a deadly outbreak.
Once the recommendations are in place, work toward implementation will begin, with the
Continue Reading Recommendations on romaine, leafy greens soon to move to implementation stage
Known in the food safety arena for his work in fresh produce research, Trevor Suslow has signed on as vice president of food safety for the Produce Marketing Association.
Suslow will start with the Newark, DE, non-profit in October, according to a news release from PMA. The move concludes a
Continue Reading Renowned UC-Davis researcher Trevor Suslow joins PMA staff
A diverse array of research about fresh produce and food safety are on the agenda for the annual Center for Produce Safety Symposium, ranging from protective edible films for fruit to what can be done to prevent outbreaks related to leafy greens.
The symposium is scheduled for June 19 and
Continue Reading Leafy greens outbreak research on agenda at CPS symposium
SEATTLE — Sometimes when something that “just can’t happen” does happen, valuable lessons are learned. That was the case when some batches of commercially produced, packaged, whole caramel apples turned out to be the cause of a listeriosis outbreak in 2014-15 that infected 35 people from 12 states, putting 34
Continue Reading Listeria outbreak set apple industry on a targeted course
Protests at two Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants Thursday by individuals purporting to be food safety advocates were actually publicity stunts staged by the Teamsters to cast a shadow on fresh produce supplier Taylor Farms, according to industry associations. 
Protestors affiliated with the Teamsters union handed out
Continue Reading Produce industry questions Chipotle protestors’ motivation
Recent foodborne illness outbreaks have pushed pathogen testing into the headlines, with national restaurant chains and local eateries touting negative test results as positive news. 
Executives for the Denver-based fast-food burrito chain Chipotle Mexican Grill are relying on pathogen testing of fresh produce as part of their response to six
Continue Reading Expert survey says: You can’t test your way to food safety
(This article by Bob Whitaker, Ph.D., was originally posted here, and is reposted with his permission.) I was at a grower training event on the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) awhile back, and it was a great event with impressive participation from the growers. The speakers were wonderful, and
Continue Reading Food Safety Audits: Do We Have the System Backward?
As part of our ongoing expert Q&A series, a conversation with Bob Whitaker, the Produce Marketing Association’s Chief Science Officer:
After working with Congress to get comprehensive food safety legislation in the pipeline, the Produce Marketing Association joined 19 other big produce interest groups last week to oppose S.510, a
Continue Reading Q&A: Why the Produce Industry Opposes Tester
