Welcome to the CPS News & Announcements center. Here you can find information on recently funded projects, CPS events and applying for upcoming grants.
Dr. Kelly Bright, an associate research professor with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is leading the project titled "Enteric viruses as new indicators of human and cattle fecal contamination of irrigation waters." Dr. Marc Verhougstraete, an assistant professor in the College of Public Health, is co-investigator.
Research led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is examining a new irrigation water sample collection method that is expected to enable better detection of pathogens and fecal indicators to better reflect microbial risks and fecal sources for irrigation water. The project is looking at surrogate organisms that may be better indicators of fecal contamination than E. coli, said Vincent Hill, Ph.D., and an environmental engineer with the CDC's Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases.
The Wegman Family Charitable Foundation, in addition to several other produce industry leaders, have recently added their names to the roll call for - and a combined $420,000 to the coffers of - the Center for Produce Safety's (CPS) Campaign for Produce Safety, CPS has announced. The Wegman Family Charitable Foundation is joined by (in alphabetical order) Amigo Farms, Inc., Coastline Family Farms, Inc., Diversified Restaurant Systems, Inc., National Watermelon Association, New York Apple Association, Inc., New York Apple Sales, Inc., Procacci Brothers Sales Corp. and Santa Rosa Produce, LLC.
Western Growers has committed $1 million to the Center for Produce Safety's (CPS) Campaign for Produce Safety, officials from both organizations have announced. Western Growers' contribution brings total campaign commitments to more than $10 million - over halfway toward CPS's goal.
Even with the best-laid plans, delays can happen during pistachio harvest and post-harvest handling. Not only can the slowdowns reduce overall nut processing efficiency and quality, but they also may have food safety implications.A two-year research project led by Dr. Linda Harris, Cooperative Extension specialist in microbial food safety, Department of Food Science and Technology, University of California, Davis, examined the potential for those delays to increase food safety risks.
The fresh produce supply chain continues to unite to support the Center for Produce Safety's (CPS) Campaign for Produce Safety, as leading retail and foodservice buyers and well-known producers alike announced commitments to fund produce-specific food safety research.
A group of Spanish researchers is conducting studies into sustainable approaches for using chlorine dioxide to disinfect surface irrigation water for produce fields. But they say their results should be useful to growers worldwide, regardless of where they farm.
The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) today announced it has received a $750,000 commitment from Washington State Tree Fruit Association (WSTFA), the trade group representing all segments of the tree fruit industry in the state of Washington.
Several studies have been published that examine the interactions among water, disinfectants, organic matter and pathogens with various types of produce in packinghouse wash water. But there’s little, if any, published literature that examines those same interactions in a mango packing facility, said Mary Anne Amalaradjou, DVM, PhD, and an assistant professor of animal science at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
CPS Announces Launch of New Website and New Web Address
Center for Produce Safety announces 2015 RFP Call for Concept Proposals
The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) today announced fourteen new grant awards valued at $2.8 million.
Center for Produce Safety has announced the opening of registration for the 2014 Produce Research Symposium.
Center for Produce Safety will host the 5th annual Produce Research Symposium in Newport Beach, CA June 24 - 25, 2014.
Davis, California, January 15, 2014- The Center for Produce Safety today announced its 2014 request for food safety research proposals. The center and its public and industry research partners are making $3 million available to fund general and commodity-specific research aimed at addressing the fresh produce industry's food safety research needs.
Davis, California, September 25, 2013 – The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) at the University of California, Davis, today announced sixteen new grant awards valued at $3 million.
Davis, CA July 25, 2013 - The Center for Produce Safety identifies key learnings from most recent Produce Research Sympsoium.
Davis, CA, July 17, 2013 – Center for Produce Safety looks to the future as the CPS Board of Directors completes a review of the CPS strategic plan.
Davis, CA, March 7, 2013 –The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) has partnered with four California commodity groups representing cantaloupe, leafy greens and pistachios in the current call for research proposals.
UPDATE: Almond Board of California joins the California commodty partnerships with CPS in the 2013. ABC is has partnered in past CPS calls for research.
Davis, CA, February 26, 2013 –The National Mango Board (NMB) is a new research collaborator that is part of the Center for Produce Safety Partners in Research program.
Davis, CA, February 20, 2013 - This is the fourth year the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission (WTFRC) and the Center for Produce Safety (CPS) will collaborate to fund produce safety research.
Davis, CA, February 12, 2013 - A new partner noted in this year's CPS proposal request is the Australian produce industry - Fresh Produce Safety Australia & New Zealand (FPSANZ) project, a joint initiative by the University of Sydney Faculty of Agriculture and Environment (USyd FAE) and PMA Australia - New Zealand (PMA A-NZ).
Davis, California, February 1, 2013 - The Center for Produce Safety at the University of California, Davis, today announced its 2013 request for food safety research proposals. The center and its public and industry research partners are making $3 million available to fund general and commodity-specific research aimed at addressing the fresh produce industry's food safety research needs.
The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) congratulates Bryan Silbermann and the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) for receiving an Award of Distinction at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences annual College Celebration at UC Davis.
Davis, California, October 1, 2012 – The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) at the University of California, Davis, today announced ten new grant awards for research directed at answering critical questions in specific areas of food safety practices for fruit, vegetable and tree nut production, harvest and post-harvest handling.
The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) Advisory Board welcomes four new board members.
Three companies have donated a total of $200,000 to the Center for Produce Safety.
Georgia-Pacific has gifted $250,000 to the Center for Produce Safety (CPS) located at the University of California, Davis. This is the largest donation from an industry supplier to support the research program at CPS.
ABC Research Laboratories is proud to offer three research travel awards to attend the upcoming CPS Produce Research Symposium on June 27th, 2012. This grant is available to all researchers working to improve produce safety.
The Center for Produce Safety at the University of California, Davis, today announced its 2012 request for food safety research proposals. The center and its public and industry research partners are making $3 million available to fund general and commodity-specific research to address the fresh produce industry's food safety research needs.
Food safety in the produce industry continues to be top of mind for consumers and industry leaders in 2012.
Castellini Group of Companies and Fresh Innovations/J-V Farms stepped up to join the growing list of contributors to the Center for Produce Safety (CPS) Campaign for Research.
Four private companies and two commodity groups chose Fresh Summit to announce their pledges to the Center for Produce Safety (CPS) Campaign for Research. This funding will support CPS’s competitive research grant programs.
CPS announces awards to 12 new research projects to help mitigate food safety risks associated with growing and harvesting fresh produce.
In conjunction with CPS's ongoing mission to translate research, we have provided a glimpse of the key research findings, discussions points, observations and highlights from the symposium....
The Center for Produce Safety's Advisory Board convened on June 27, with a key order of business to welcome new board leadership as well as recognize departing board members for their service.CPS is pleased to announce produce industry veteran...
Wegman Family Charitable Foundation representatives presented a gift of $250,000 to Center for Produce Safety officers today, during opening ceremonies for CPS’s second annual Produce Research Symposium in Orlando, Fla. The gift is the first made from the retail sector since CPS was founded in 2007...
Symposium coordinators are getting the word out that Session V of the CPS Produce Research Symposium will provide perspective and create conversation about the “big research picture.”
Make sure to view important FDA and CPS produce safety research on poster sessions in ChampionsGate Room. This year's symposium will have all eyes toward the stage during each of the five sessions but the research findings will not stop at the end of each session. During the symposium's breaks and reception in the ChampionsGate Room, CPS will showcase...
This session will focus on some novel concepts and next-generation ideas in produce food safety. We will explore genetic interaction between...
The challenges and opportunities of "mining" industry and regulatory surveillance data to assess risks will be the focus of session three....
The second session looks at pathogen survival and mitigations in production environments for several specific commodities. Results of research that identified factors...
This is the first in a five part series which will look at each session being presented in Orlando, Florida.... The first session focuses on postharvest approaches to minimizing pathogen contamination. Water sanitation has been a crucial issue for several years and research presented in Session I sheds
The latest food safety findings from the Center for Produce Safety’s (CPS) research program will be presented and discussed at the 2011 CPS Produce Research Symposium in Orlando, FL. The agenda reflects the center’s produce-specific research mission to sponsor short-term research with real-world applications to help answer industry’s most pressing food safety questions. The symposium is designed for a global audience, and is equally relevant to industry, government, the public health community and academia....
Organizations from across the produce supply chain and both public and private sectors have committed to sponsoring the Center for Produce Safety's 2011 Produce Research Symposium, which will be held June 28 in Orlando, Fla., USA.
CPS today announced that it had joined with the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) to host a produce safety tour of Florida produce production to provide federal agencies and regulators first hand, in-depth experience and knowledge of industry current practices of how produce is safely grown, packed and handled
Summaries from the June 2010 Produce Research Priorities meeting are now available under the Resources link....
Registration is now open for the Center for Produce Safety's 2011 Produce Research Symposium, to be held June 28 in Orlando, Florida....
The 2011 RFP seeks to fund both produce-general food safety questions and commodity-specific questions. Core (produce-general) research priorities endeavor to better understand risk potential and to develop...
The Center for Produce Safety 2011 Produce Research Symposium will be held June 28, 2011, at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate. In keeping with its purpose to identify and fund research specific to a commodity, region or industry...
The Center for Produce Safety is honored to showcase three research projects during the Fresh Summit Research to Real-World: The Best of Food Safety Innovations workshop, October 16. The workshop format will be similar to the CPS Symposium held in June 2010...
The awarding of 17 new grants for research to help mitigate food safety risks associated with growing and harvesting fresh produce was announced by CPS today...
CPS has been asked to summarize the information presented at the Symposium. Dr. Bob Whitaker, PMA's chief science officer and the chair of the CPS Technical Committee, has provided a list of 15 key learnings from the research reports...
The final reports for the first eleven projects funded by the Center for Produce Safety have been posted...
The first-ever research symposium brought the private fresh produce chain together with researchers and government officials June 23 to learn about and discuss the real-world business applicability of the center's produce-specific food safety research...
Sponsors making this event possible include platinum sponsor Produce Marketing Association (PMA), gold sponsors iGPS and Taylor Farms, and silver sponsors Castellini Group of Companies, Chiquita Brands International/Fresh Express, C. H. Robinson Worldwide Inc., Ecolab, Florida Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Florida - IFAS, Florida Fruit & Vegetable Assodation, The Giumarra Companies, Microsoft Dynamics and UC Dcwis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences....
The produce industry will learn the practical, real-world applications of the latest produce-specific food safety research when the Center for Produce Safety’s (CPS) first-ever Produce Research Symposium gets underway Wednesday, June 23. This unique research event will present results of 11 CPS-funded research projects, along with an interactive discus-sion of the research’s real-world opportunities by leaders in produce, academia and government...
The Produce Research Symposium on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of the University of California, Davis was announced today by CPS...
Today CPS announced a request for research proposals (RFP) to address both general and commodity‐specific research questions related to fresh produce safety...
Thirteen new grants were awarded for research aimed at mitigating the food safety risks associated with growing and harvesting fresh produce.The broad scope of the winning projects reflects the deep expertise and financial commitments of CPS’s
public and private partners....
CPS today announced it collaborated with nine leading grower-shippers to host nearly two dozen federal, state and local regulators for field and facility tours.Agencies represented at the two-day program included the U.S. Food and Drug Administrtation (FDA), which regulates fresh produce nationally, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency....
CPS is partnering with Produce Marketing Association to present a session on food safety innovations at PMA’s upcoming Fresh Summit International Conference & Exposition in Anaheim, California. CPS Executive Director Bonnie Fernandez‐Fenaroli will join three other speakers and four panelists at the October 3 session, “Food Safety Innovations: What's New and What Does It Really Mean?”
CPS is increasing the availability of competitive grant funds of up to $3.5 million to address critical food safety issues. The availability of additional funds combines public and private financial commitments to the competitive grant process...
With $2,000,000 funds avilable for one to two years CPS is pleased to announce it's summer RFP. Research activities to be sponsored by the CPS and partnering entities are to be directed to answering critical research questions that fill the gaps in our basic understanding in specific areas of food safety practices for fruit and vegetable production. The objective is to provide the produce industry with practical, translatable research data that can be used at all levels throughout the supply chain....
CPS today announced a request for research proposals (RFP) to address both general and commodity-specific research questions related to fresh produce safety. The new RFP –CPS’s largest to date– is the product of collaboration among public agencies and private industry to streamline research questions and maximize the impact of individual research budgets...
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the UC Davis-based Center for Produce Safety (CPS) have signed a no-cost agreement to enhance the department’s food safety grants process and leverage additional funding...
CPS and the California Leafy Greens Research Board are proud to announce a joint call for food safety proposals. The research areas are directed to answer critical research questions that fill the gaps in the basic understanding in specific areas of food safety practices for leafy greens production...
CPS announced today the recipients of the first research awards aimed at providing the produce industry with the best science available to enhance food safety systems from field to fork. Over $500,000 in research funds were awarded to the following recipients who will engage in critical research projects over the next year.
For all press inquiries please contact Bonnie Fernandez-Fenaroli at bonnie@centerforproducesafety.org.