Fruit & Vegetables
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Food Safety: Fresh Fruit and Vegetables
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees food safety
for fresh fruit and vegetables. After several large outbreaks of
foodborne illnesses in the mid-1990s, traced to California lettuce
and Guatemalan raspberries, FDA started to focus on the potential
for microbial contamination of fresh produce at the farm level. In
1998, FDA published its voluntary guidelines for good agricultural
practices (GAPs) to reduce microbial contamination. FDA
acknowledges that with current technology it is possible to reduce,
but not eliminate, the risk of microbial contamination. These
voluntary guidelines are used by many U.S. and foreign producers
growing for the U.S. market. GAPs are general guidelines that can
be used for any fresh fruit or vegetable.
For growers, adopting GAPs has benefits and costs. When there is
an outbreak traced to a particular commodity, all growers face
reduced consumer demand, even if the outbreak is not traced to
their operation. Farmers with GAPs can reduce their losses in such
a case. In the 2003 hepatitis A outbreak associated with green
onions imported from Mexico, growers with GAPs and third-party
audits of their status suffered fewer losses than other Mexican
growers who could not easily show buyers that they took food-safety
precautions.
Another important benefit of adopting GAPs is that many retail
and foodservice buyers now require that their growers show
compliance with GAPs. These buyers also may demand food-safety
practices that exceed the GAP guidelines. Growers receive wider
market access with GAPs, but not necessarily higher prices. While
produce of different sizes and observable quality differences have
different prices, price differentials for produce grown with
different food safety practices have not emerged. Consumers cannot
observe food safety, and growers can use GAPs but cannot guarantee
a product's safety. Under these conditions, retailers and food
service buyers may be wary of advertising claims that some produce
is safer and merits higher prices.
On the cost side, the investment required to adopt GAPs may be
quite large and immediate. Smaller growers may have a harder time
adopting GAPs, leading to a structural impact on the industry. The
only survey on adoption of GAPs for produce sold in the United
States is one of Mexican green-onion growers showing that about 70
percent of growers had already adopted GAPs or were in the process
of doing so.
Although FDA has relied on voluntary guidelines, it could always
decide to make food-safety practices mandatory. In 2004, FDA
encouraged five commodity groups (lettuce, tomatoes, green onions,
cantaloup, and herbs) with a history of contamination problems to
develop commodity-specific GAPs that would further refine the
important food-safety practices for their commodities.
With increased traceback capabilities, more outbreaks are likely
to be traced to particular commodities and producers. One producer
with a problem can have a negative impact on all growers of that
commodity. Several commodity grower groups are considering plans to
mandate certain food-safety practices to protect the industry from
growers who may underinvest in food safety.
After the 2006 foodborne-illness outbreak associated with
California spinach, growers initiated the California Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing
Agreement. Nearly all California leafy green handlers
voluntarily agreed to sell only from growers who adhere to new
food-safety standards, or best practices, for California-grown
product. Growers are certified by field audits as to their
compliance.
Unlike GAPs, the new standards define specific criteria and
target values for control and monitoring. In the original GAP
document warning farmers that "water quality should be adequate for
its intended use," FDA was justifiably reluctant to specify a
threshold for water quality because it lacked data to support
specific thresholds. The new best practices are more specific; for
example, the new standards require well water to be tested before
production begins and monthly during the production season.
Specific tests are recommended for measuring levels of generic
E. coli in water and an action plan will be implemented if
counts reach certain numerical thresholds.