The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) has funded 14 new research projects that will help answer the fresh produce industry’s most urgent food safety questions related to leafy greens, stone fruit, pears, foodborne pathogens, indoor farming, and other topics.

Part of Food Safety Magazine’s series with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), titled, “Evolution of a New Era: Advancing Strategies for Smarter Food Safety,” this episode of Food Safety Matters discusses the agency’s commodity-specific strategies to prevent foodborne illness outbreaks through FDA's Foodborne Outbreak Response Improvement Plan under the New Era of Smarter Food Safety initiative. We are joined by Stephen Hughes, Prevention Coordinator in the Office of Food Safety at FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, and Dr. Jennifer McEntire, Chief Food Safety and Regulatory Officer at the International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA).

An ongoing study funded by the Center for Produce Safety is examining the survival of Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes on surfaces in dry food packaging facilities, as well as the efficacy of dry cleaning processes on pathogen reduction. The first of three phases has concluded.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a document that provides an overview of the agency’s ongoing efforts to advance the safety of produce imported into the U.S. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced two new food safety prevention strategies intended to help prevent outbreaks of foodborne salmonellosis and listeriosis associated with imported enoki and wood ear mushrooms, and salmonellosis associated with bulb onions.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) have released findings from recent Joint Expert Meetings on Microbial Risk Assessment (JERMA) sessions on the prevention and control of microbiological hazards in fresh fruits and vegetables.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Agricultural Research Service has discovered 33 new species of mycotoxin-producing fungi belonging to the genus Fusarium.

The Arizona Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (Arizona LGMA) Food Safety Committee has approved multiple changes to its food safety standards for the 2022–2023 growing season.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it will conduct targeted sampling of leafy greens as part of the Leafy Greens STEC Action Plan (LGAP). The agency also provided updates on the progress of LGAP and a summary report of a 2021 sampling assignment.

Researchers at BSC Electronics in Perth, Australia have developed a berry-harvesting robot that can kill fungi on the fruits it picks by using ultraviolet (UV) light.