The seventh annual CPS Research Symposium was held in Seattle, WA on June 28-29, 2016. As in years past, the produce safety research community came together to share the latest results from CPS-funded programs and to discuss how the data can be used to build risk and science-based food safety programs for produce companies all along the supply chain. The interpretation of food safety research results and application to individual companies is most appropriately the undertaking of those that reside within those specific operations. We highlight these key learnings from the CPS Symposium to create awareness and stimulate thought. CPS thanks Produce Marketing Association for developing and sharing this document.
Key Learnings Synopsis
- It is important to learn from illness outbreaks and recalls to prevent repeating the same mistakes.
- Generic E. coli has limitations as an indicator for irrigation water quality.
- Alternative microbial water quality indicators and indexing organisms are on the horizon.
- It is important to sample irrigation water sources correctly.
- Irrigation water sources can be treated with disinfectants, but...
- Validation and verification – know the difference.
- The search for surrogates continues.
- Bacterial detection is not really the problem, separating the pathogen from the other bacteria is the key.
- The challenge of balancing the risk of animal intrusion and conservation is benefiting from emerging data acquisition technologies and understanding of the impact of the environment on pathogen growth and persistence.
- Understanding the genetics and gene expression in production environments will drive the next level of understanding in produce food safety.
This is the Key Learnings synopsis only. See the PDF link for more extensive information.