ADDRESSING INCONGRUITIES BETWEEN FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT AND NATIONAL ORGANIC PROGRAM STANDARDS

Organic farmers can face unique costs and challenges in trying to meet both National Organic Program standards and food safety requirements. While the organic community has identified this as a critical issue, little data has been collected synthesizing the current experiences and specific research needs of the organic community. This planning grant will fill this gap by conducting a needs assessment to pinpoint the most challenging incongruities between food safety and NOP policies.Our long-term goal is to develop research programs that reduce the burden of compliance with multiple regulations, largely by equipping organic farmers and industry stakeholders with feasible, cost-effective, and organic-compliant tools to comply with food safety best practices and requirements.Our specific objectives are to:Gather current information on organic growers' experiences with incongruities between food safety requirements and organic standards;Assess the target audience's priorities related to research on reducing incongruities between food safety and organic agriculture;Conduct a systematic review of published data and ongoing research activities related to the identified priority needs;Identify gaps between priority needs and the current state of the science; andDevelop a full multi-regional OREI research proposal to address those gaps to be submitted in 2023.