On September 28, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition communicated that it does not plan to conduct surveillance sampling of leafy greens at Yuma, Arizona coolers during the upcoming 2021/2022 growing season. Three factors helped FDA come to this decision: The Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association and Arizona LGMA have established an open dialogue with FDA staff to ensure that they understand how the LGMA food safety gui

The Arizona Leafy Greens Food Safety Training Kit (FSTK) was borne out of a need to educate workers at the field level, and encourage the industry to adopt uniform food safety handling practices. The topics in the kit were developed in part using audit results to determine specific training needs of the leafy greens farming community. Since its inception, it has evolved into a completely engaging program that can be delivered in the field, in a classroom or via video. All ma

Arizona leafy greens farmers, shippers and harvesters are committed to food safety and they know that training and education are an integral part of producing safe food. As a part of Food Safety Education Month #FSEM2021 we wanted to take a few moments to commend the 479 members of the Arizona leafy greens farming community who participated in food safety training last month to prepare for their upcoming growing and harvesting season. Trainings were hosted on the topics of r