Food safety is focus of the half- and full-day training
OLATHE, Kan. – Kansas State University is teaming with the University of Missouri and other organizations to host several half- and full-day training workshops focused on food safety for fruit and vegetable growers in Kansas and Missouri.
Outbreaks of foodborne illness linked to fresh produce led to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which was signed into law in 2011. The law focuses on proactively working to prevent contamination in the U.S. food supply rather than responding to it after the fact.
Half-day “Introduction to Produce Safety” workshops are designed to help producers avoid contamination. These workshops are funded by a Food Safety Outreach Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
The half-day workshops – all in November in several locations in Kansas (Ft. Scott, Wichita, Colby, Olathe) and one in Missouri (Independence) – are sponsored by K-State, University of Missouri, Lincoln University, the Kansas Beginning Farmers Coalition, Kansas Farmers Union, and the Kansas Department of Agriculture. All farmers attending these workshops will receive free water testing after the workshop.
The Produce Safety Workshop in Wichita will be held on Tuesday, November 14, 2017 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Sedgwick County Extension Education Center.
Separate full-day trainings are also planned in Missouri and Kansas over the next several months. They will meet the training requirements of the FSMA. They are sponsored by the same groups, as well as the Missouri Department of Agriculture.
A full-day workshop is scheduled in Wichita for Friday, March 9, 2018 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Sedgwick County Extension Education Center.
More information, including online registration, on both the half- and full-day trainings is available at http://www.ksre.k-state.edu/foodsafety/produce/ or by contacting Cal Jamerson, Kansas State University Produce Safety Extension Associate at [email protected] or 913-307-7394. Wichita contact is Rebecca McMahon, [email protected] or 316-660-0142.
K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county extension offices, experiment fields, area extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus in Manhattan.
Story by: Mary Lou Peter [email protected] K-State Research and Extension http://www.ksre.ksu.edu
For more information: Londa Nwadike – 913-307-7391 or [email protected]
