Project Overview
This project was created to train farmers in assessing
microbial risk in post-harvest processes incorporating food safety practices.
We developed: a washline/packing generic facility design to aid farmers in
establishing a post-harvest work area that improves working efficiencies while
reducing microbial risk of contamination, developed SOPs to follow along with
hands-on training so they understand the concepts. I designed/built a low-cost demo
wash table to highlight ease of cleaning to reduce microbial contamination. Afterwards,
I followed up to assist in questions, solve problems, and overcome hurdles to
adoption of food safety practices for produce wash/packing .
I estimated 80 farmers to participate from 4 workshops.
Seven were held with 203 farmers teaching them to put food safety principles into
practice. For NY, 110 farmers attended. I followed-up with 72. Evaluations from
61 obtained showed all had a better understanding of what food safety is,
would revise the way they wash/pack produce from what they learned at training, and
would recommend this training to others. The majority noted they are using
sanitizer in their water, would go on to attend GAPs/HGAPs training, and that
the follow-up by us was very important to them in moving forward with
implementing more food safety practices.
Number of Participants: 203
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
There are no promotional materials available for this project.
EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS
There are no educational materials available for this project.
REPORTS & EVALUATIONS
There are no reports or evaluations available for this project.