ENSURING FOOD SAFETY COMPETENCY OF PRODUCE GROWERS AND PROCESSORS IN THE NCR THROUGH EXPANDED COLLABORATION WITH DIVERSIFIED POPULATIONS

The overarching goal of this project is to expand support for the national food safety program by coordinating information within the NCR through communication, collaboration, education, training, technical assistance, and development of new food safety materials. This requires assessing the needs of diversified and underserved grower and processor audiences, the continued education and training of regional food safety trainers, growers, and processors, and providing technical assistance to partners.Our central hypothesis is that targeted food safety education and access to technical assistance will provide the crucial tools for diversified and underserved growers and processors to facilitate compliance with FSMA regulations. The specific objectives of this project are to:Objective 1: Expand the produce safety network within the NCR to include underserved produce industry partners and more diverse producers, processors, and educators.Objective 2: Collaborate with and support the NCR produce safety network partners.Objective 3: Create, modify, and validate safety training programs based on a needs assessment, focusing on underserved and diverse production and processing environments and new educators.Objective 4: Professional development of and technical assistance for NCR produce safety educators, growers, and processors.