First-ever industry-wide program may minimize risk of contamination
YUMA (Oct. 25, 2010)
As part of its commitment to ensure the integrity of leafy greens products grown and shipped from Arizona, the Arizona Leafy Greens consortium is rolling out an initiative to educate field workers in safe food handling practices, representing a uniform set of guidelines that breaks new ground in the leafy greens industry. Food safety training is a major component of the industry wide good agricultural practices program.
“Since the formal inception of this program in 2007, our third-party audits have revealed that most of the infractions happen at the field level,” said Vicki-Lynne Scott, technical subcommittee chairperson and board member of the Arizona Leafy Greens Products Shipper Marketing Agreement. “We developed a program that really drives home the importance of safety training while keeping in mind the very different cultural attributes of Hispanic workers, which make up the majority of those in the field.”
The Food Safety Training Kit is a bilingual food safety training program aimed at employees in the leafy greens industry developed by Sergio Nieto-Montenegro, PhD., of El Paso, Tex.-based Hispanic Workforce Management, LLC. Dr. Nieto-Montenegro is widely consulted for his expertise in developing culturally relevant food safety training programs, and developed training programs for workers on mushroom farms, USDA inspected meat and poultry processing plants and the retail industry was presented throughout the United States. He uses lively demonstrations and real-life examples to drive home the importance of food safety education.
“This is an easy to use program that can be used by anyone who is responsible for training employees,” said Nieto-Montenegro. “It can be taught in a training room with a Powerpoint, or using a flip chart on the tailgate of a truck.”
The program is designed for harvest supervisors and foremen, food safety coordinators, production supervisors, quality control personnel, extension educators and/or industry consultants who conduct food safety training at leafy greens farms, and is specifically targeted at those who handle leafy greens before, during or after harvest. The lessons are presented in both English and Spanish, and the uniform application of the lessons make it possible for every employee in the industry to receive the same basic food safety training.
The Arizona Leafy Greens Products Shipper Marketing Agreement (Arizona Leafy Greens) is a consortium of shippers of Arizona leafy greens produce that have put in place protective controls to ensure the integrity of leafy greens products grown and shipped from Arizona. Arizona’s Leafy Greens industry provides 75 percent of the leafy greens produce consumed in the United States and Canada for the months of November through March. The $1 billion industry employs approximately 20,000 workers. Arizona Leafy Greens is comprised of 90 percent of the state’s growers and shippers in a volunteer network that enables them to proactively diffuse potential issues through an intricate system of checks and balances. The program is administered by the Arizona Department of Agriculture and closely monitored by USDA-licensed inspectors.
