An Education and Outreach Center on Food Safety for Small Processors

This proposal is a follow up to a preliminary study funded by the USDA and conducted by Tuskegee University. It is based on a nation-wide "Needs Assessment Survey" of small meat and poultry producers with a view to addressing the problems preventing their compliance with the new rules of HACCP. Our project will now focus on parts of the identified problems: a) the priorities of education; b) hands-on training; and c) outreach activities directed at meat and poultry processors that have limited resources. It will apply the seven principles of HACCP to effect the control of food borne pathogens in the target population and offer solutions through the already established and now to be renewed network of extension workers.