The California LGMA (Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement) has announced the initiation of a 2-year food safety study called “Romaine Test & Learn.”
Approved unanimously by the LGMA Advisory Board, the study aims to collect and analyze pathogen test data for romaine lettuce from LGMA members, encompassing both pre-harvest and post-harvest
Continue Reading California LGMA announces romaine testing study
The Leafy Greens Greens Marketing Agreements in California and Arizona have been amended by their Advisory Boards to require additional safety practices for growing leafy greens such as romaine lettuce in the two states that grow the vast majority of it.
The additional safety measures follow costly and embarrassing outbreaks
Continue Reading Tougher safety provisions added to leafy greens agreements in key states
Livestock operations with lettuce fields as neighbors may soon be getting visits, welcome or not, from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspectors.
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, plans to introduce the Expanded Food Safety Inspection Act. Her bill gives FDA the power to chase down the source of pathogen
Continue Reading Gillibrand bill empowers FDA to chase down sources of food borne illnesses to wherever they go
Arizona’s Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District plans an early drawdown this year of water in a canal suspected of contaminating romaine lettuce that was grown in the Yuma region and linked to a deadly E. coli outbreak in 2018.
After the drawdown, district officials say the canal will be allowed
Continue Reading Draining canal may reveal answers about romaine contamination
The purpose of the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) is the prevention of foodborne disease. We’ve invested billions of taxpayer dollars and thousands of years of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) professional time since 2011 to make that so.
When foodborne disease happens, FDA, the federal Centers for Disease
Continue Reading Letter From The Editor: Romaine, Reform and Revive
An expert panel has found that the best practices guidelines already followed by California and Arizona growers compares favorably with the new Produce Safety Rule now finalized under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). 
All four reviewers on the panel say that the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement’s (LGMA’s) food safety
Continue Reading Review finds LGMA compares favorably with FDA produce rule
CHICAGO — The Food Safety Summit produced some polite discussion Wednesday, but no clamor for bringing back the Microbiological Data Program (MDP) to test more fresh produce before it reaches consumers. The MDP, about $5 million of annual federal funding for state agricultural laboratories to test fruits and vegetables at
Continue Reading Produce experts say preventive strategies are more valuable than testing
Only two more Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rules remain to be finalized. Final rules for Sanitary Transportation and Intentional Adulteration are due out next spring. But with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) release last week of final FSMA rules on Produce Safety, Foreign Supplier Verification, and Accredited
Continue Reading Letter From the Editor: A ‘Herculean Accomplishment’
