USDA helping FDA with new fresh produce safety rules
Washington Ag Today October 23, 2009 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is in charge of food safety for fresh produce, has some guidelines for how farmers can best reduce food safety risks. Those are voluntary guidelines. But now; Skelton: “FDA has gone the next step based on congressional mandate that they write a regulation now.” Which farmers would have to follow, according to Leanne Skelton, Chief of the Fresh Produce Branch of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. So FDA, which is not primarily an agricultural agency is having to write these rules for farmers of all kinds of different crops. Skelton: “And our role is to help them better understand our industry so they write something that makes good sense.” Skelton will actually be detailed to the FDA for six months as she helps the agency develop the new safety regulations for produce. ? The Washington State Department of Agriculture says it issued I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
fines totaling $11,200 and imposed license suspensions during the third
quarter of 2009 for violations of state pesticide laws and rules. Fines
ranged from $1,000 to $7,500 for incidents that involved an improper
soil fumigation that injured neighbors, selling restricted-use
pesticides to persons who were not licensed, and providing insufficient
safety measures for pesticide workers. The WSDA completed these investigations in Franklin, Pierce, Snohomish and Walla Walla counties.
