Diving into the food safety considerations of mushrooms. Photo by Willie Crosby / Small Farms Quarterly Produce Safety Spotlight: Mushrooms! The edible mushroom market is a billion-dollar industry in the United States, and is covered under the FSMA Produce Safety Rule , the same as other fresh produce.   Recalls, Outbreaks, and Misidentifications of Mushrooms One of the earliest documented outbreaks tied to mushrooms occurred in the United States in 1989. Four separate outbre

When does water make cleaning harder? Considerations for when dry cleaning is the better option. Fair use stock image Wait…I’m allowed to clean without soap and water?! No doubt about it, cleaning and sanitizing food contact surfaces are core components of on-farm produce safety. However, for crops like onions and garlic, moisture may increase the risk of microbial growth and premature decay, and make overall cleaning harder than it needs to be. The FSMA Produce Safety Rule  

If you have already been inspected by MDARD for FSMA, you will be inspected in the next 3-5 years. Don’t fret! Here are some insider...

Diving into the food safety considerations of tomatoes. Produce Safety Spotlight: Tomatoes Red, orange, yellow, green, purple, pink - a...

Food-grade sanitizers added to produce wash water may reduce the risk of spreading pathogens. Image source: Michigan On-Farm Produce...

Diving into the food safety considerations of microgreens Image source: https://minnesota.agclassroom.org/ Introduction - Microgreens,...

Imagine that ladder represents your farm’s food safety culture. Each rung of the ladder is a step toward achieving produce safety excellence

The USDA Food Safety Certification for Specialty Crops Program offers financial assistance for specialty crop operations that incur...