Produce Safety Research Series
Advancing Produce Safety Through Science and Insight


For 17 years, the Center for Produce Safety (CPS) has funded research tackling the produce industry’s most urgent food safety challenges. From this work, nine key areas have emerged with clear, practical takeaways already helping growers, packers, and retailers reduce risk and protect public health.


This series spotlights each area with a brief overview and a direct link to the research. The complete report is available now on the CPS website.

Pathogen Persistence and Movement on the Farm



A fresh produce field is a complex and variable biological environment. The makeup of the soil, land topography, irrigation water chemistry, fertilizer use and timing, sunlight and rainfall, wind and humidity, crop structure and physiology, animal interactions, and the resident microbial communities all influence the persistence and movement of human pathogens in the field.


Building on earlier research findings, CPS-funded studies have continued to deepen industry understanding of the environmental factors that impact pathogen persistence on the farm. The research summarized in this article reinforces and expands the knowledgebase on how pathogens survive and move within production environments.

KEY LEARNINGS 


  • Human pathogens can persist in field environments for extended periods of time.
  • The field environment is a complex biological system and the interaction of pathogens with the variables in that system determines its persistence and die-off rates.
  • Effective, verifiable cleaning and sanitation practices on harvest equipment and tools is critically important to control transference of pathogens from the soil to the product on the farm.
  • Hand washing and proper use of gloves is a key deterrent to viral and bacterial pathogen transfer.
  • Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), large poultry operations, and dairies are hazards. Wind-blown dust or bioaerosols emanating from animal operations can facilitate transference of pathogens to crops, soil, and open water sources representing a contamination risk.
  • Flooding events can move pathogens onto and within farms.  


How could the industry use this information? 


Awareness of the key learnings listed in this report is important to growers as they manage crop production  and strive to improve food safety outcomes. Without a final “kill step,” contamination risks in fresh produce must be managed throughout production.  Understanding that human pathogens can periodically be found in production environments alerts growers and harvesters to the importance of assessing contamination hazards that might be associated with specific fields or adjoining land and subsequent risk factors permitting pathogen movement and transference to the crop.

Read the full article: Fueling Change: 17 Years of Research Insights – Pathogen Persistence and Movement on the Farm

 

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About CPS
The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) is a 501(c)(3), U.S. tax-exempt, charitable organization focused exclusively on providing the produce industry and government with open access to the actionable information needed to continually enhance the safety of produce.

For more information:

Phone: 530-557-9706

Email: info@centerforproducesafety.org

Website: www.centerforproducesafety.org
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