Is your farm in compliance with new federal food safety standards?
The Food Safety Modernization Act Produce Safety Rule requires that at least one supervisor or responsible party at a farm must have successfully completed food safety training at least equivalent to that received under standardized curricula recognized as adequate by the Food and Drug Administration.
Penn State Extension will offer Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday, March 2 at the Penn State Extension Mercer County Office, 463 N. Perry Highway, Mercer, Pa.
Approximately seven hours of instruction time will be spent on the following modules: “Introduction to Produce Safety”; “Worker Health, Hygiene and Training”; “Wildlife, Domesticated Animals and Land Use”; “Agricultural Water” (part one: “Production Water and part two: “Post-Harvest Water”); “Post-Harvest Handling and Sanitation”; and “How to Develop a Farm Food Safety Plan.”
After attending the entire course, participants will be eligible to receive a certificate from the Association of Food and Drug Officials verifying that they have completed the training.
To register, visit Grower Training or call 877-345-0691. The standard registration fee is $150 per person; a $25 discounted rate is available for Pennsylvania Grower Producers who meet grant criteria by agreeing to share their contact information with Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.
Compliance dates for the Produce Safety Rule in the Food Safety Modernization Act are as follows:
• Very small operations ($25,000 to $250,000 annual revenue): January 2020.
• Small operations ($250,000 to $500,000 annual revenue): January 2019.
• All other operations (over $500,000 annual revenue): the compliance date was January 2018.
Produce growers who are not sure whether their farm is covered under the Food Safety Modernization Act can visit the Penn State Extension website to learn more. For more information about the Grower Training Course, contact Jeff Stoltzfus at 717-354-8116 or jh**@ps*.edu….
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