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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today that the final 2004 Produce Safety Action Plan (the Plan) entitled “Produce Safety from Production to Consumption: 2004 Action Plan to Minimize Foodborne Illness Associated with Fresh Produce Consumption” is available at http://www.foodsafety.gov/~dms/fs-toc.html#prod
Because of the importance of fresh produce in a healthy diet and continuing outbreaks associated with the consumption of fresh produce, FDA developed the Plan to further minimize foodborne illness associated with the consumption of fresh produce.
In 1998, FDA issued the GAP/GMP guidance document, entitled, "Guide To Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables". The guidance provided an overview of the microbial food safety hazards and good agricultural and management practices common to the growing, harvesting, washing, sorting, packing, and transporting of most fruits and vegetables sold to consumers in an unprocessed or minimally processed (raw) form to minimize microbial food safety hazards from consumption of fresh produce. Both domestic and foreign fresh fruit and vegetable producers are encouraged to use this voluntary, science-based guidance to help ensure the safety of their produce.
The guidance was widely adopted and in an effort to further improve the safety of produce FDA continued to work to developed enhanced guidance using the latest science. This was reflected in a proposed plan released on June 15, 2004 followed by a public meeting to discuss the plan on June 29, 2004. The plan builds on earlier efforts of the 1998 GAP/GMP guidance, inspections of farms and packing facilities, and investigations of foodborne illness outbreaks.
Written comments and comments at the public meeting supported the objectives of the plan. Some comments suggested additional actions that might help to achieve the plan’s objectives. All relevant comments have been considered in the final plan.
The final plan addresses all major points from the farm to the table where contamination of produce could occur. It covers fresh fruits and vegetables in their unpeeled natural form and raw minimally processed products, i.e., fresh-cut produce. The plan has four objectives, namely,
1. To prevent contamination of fresh produce with pathogens,
2. To minimize the public health impact when contamination of fresh produce occurs,
3. To improve communication with producers, packers, processors, transporters, distributors, preparers, consumers, and other government entities about fresh produce, and
4. To facilitate and support research relevant to the contamination of fresh produce.
Under each objective, the final plan elaborates actions to achieve the Plan’s objectives, including new actions that address fresh produce safety in segments of the supply chain beyond production and packing.
The plan provides significant opportunities for FDA’s food safety partners both in the public and private sectors to implement activities recommended in the final Plan to achieve the overarching goal to minimize the risk of foodborne illness associated with fresh produce consumption.
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2004 Produce Safety Action Plan