The FDA’s newly released 2020 Leafy Greens STEC Action Plan offers a well-worn list of produce safety agenda items. Like previous agency action plans, this latest plan pledges support for efforts to encourage good agricultural practices (known as “GAPs”), make inspections more reliable, and enhance outbreak investigations.
Since the
Continue Reading The FDA’s latest leafy greens action plan is more of the same
An indoor agricultural evolution is in the making. That’s how some people see the surge of interest in growing leafy greens in greenhouses. No doubt about it, this approach to farming has increased dramatically in every corner of the country, even the South.
Not surprisingly, food safety has been one
Continue Reading Safety aspects of indoor farming signal a change in agriculture
Like last year, shoppers are probably going to avoid romaine lettuce and maybe other leafy greens like spinach just ahead of Thanksgiving due to fears over yet another expanding multistate outbreak of E. coli O157: H7.
Officially, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says consumers should not
Continue Reading Romaine outbreak No. 5 met with ‘frustration and heartbreak” by Salinas growers for those infected
More people are sick, more people have died, and more states are reporting E. coli infections in an ongoing outbreak linked to romaine lettuce. As the CDC was releasing the new numbers Friday, growers were promising to figure out what happened and take action.
Outbreak investigators have been trying to
Continue Reading E. coli claims 4 more lives; growers promise changes
An E. coli outbreak traced to chopped romaine lettuce has spread to another five states and public health officials are reporting a hospitalization rate of almost 60 percent, which is twice the usual rate.
There are 53 confirmed cases spread across 16 states, as of Wednesday’s update from the federal
Continue Reading Unusually high percentage of E. coli victims hospitalized
Chopped romaine lettuce grown in the Yuma, AZ area is the likely source to date of this year’s only multistate E. coli O157: H7 outbreak, and it is not over.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta Friday updated their report on the 11-state outbreak involving
Continue Reading Yuma area grew romaine lettuce that’s likely causing E. coli outbreak
The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement recently gave its highest honor to the Chicago-based nonprofit food safety organization STOP Foodborne Illness. 
Continue Reading STOP Foodborne Illness honored by California produce group
(This blog post by Scott Horsfall was published May 2, 2014, on the California Leafy Greens Products Handler Marketing Agreement site and is posted here with permission.) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released its Operational Strategy for Implementing the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The
Continue Reading FDA Cites Need to Coordinate with Marketing Agreements on Food Safety
This editorial was originally published September 12 on the LGMA’s blog. The job of implementing new food-safety legislation under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) isn’t getting any easier for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Pressure is mounting from some small farmers, foreign producers and consumer activist groups,
Continue Reading California's Leafy Greens Producers Want Strong Food-Safety Laws
