Food Safety at the Market

Food Safety at the Market. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Farmers' markets are a great place to get the freshest produce around. But just how safe is that food. A number of farmers markets are getting an education on how to keep food safe this upcoming season. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure when it comes to food safety. That's why the Oregon Department of Agriculture is holding workshops this month and next aimed at a popular food venue.

LAYMON:  This year, we are doing more direct outreach to the farmers' market managers and vendors. We are working with our Ag Marketing Division to provide training at five locations around the state.

Ellen Laymon of ODA's Food Safety Division says holding the educational workshops is not an indication of a specific or severe food safety problem in farmers' markets.

LAYMON:  We don't know that they are not doing things the right way. As a matter of fact, most times they are doing things the right way. It just formalizes it. Anybody who wants to start a farmers' market, it gives them guidelines of what to expect from their vendors, what to tell their vendors so that there is safe food available at the farmers' market.

The key issues discussed in the workshop involve keeping foods at the right temperature, avoiding cross-contamination, and having portable handwash stations where food is going to be sampled. With about 90 farmers’ markets now operating in Oregon, the workshops offer food for thought to those who offer food for sale. Laymon says right now, farmers' markets in Oregon are largely unregulated. That's why ODA wants to provide food safety outreach to market managers and vendors:

LAYMON: We are moving towards regulation. We are working with the Farmers' Market Association to develop regulations that fit the activities at a farmers' market, and the first step in that is education and communication.

Laymon says these workshops provide some hands-on demonstrations of the most important food safety factors related to farmers' markets.

LAYMON: Temperature is a big thing for us. So we are actually showing people what kind of thermometers are acceptable to use to take temperatures of their product. We're taking portable handwash stations and we are setting them up and we're showing people what we mean by a temporary handwash station with soap and paper towels.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.