Inspections for the Produce Safety Rule began earlier this year and it is important to remember that the first step of compliance is the completion of the required Produce Safety Training that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has received funding from FDA to provide Produce Safety Rule Grower Training courses at a reduced price through Safe Food Alliance.
“CDFA is out and about doing those inspections and you better make sure you have that first element completed or else you will be out of compliance,” said Priscilla Rodriguez, Director of Food Safety for Western Agricultural Processors Association. “After the eight-hour training you get a certificate, and it’s ‘a one and done’ type of training.”
The requirement for compliance dictates that at least one supervisor or responsible party for a farming operation must have a training certificate. “That training certificate does stay with the individual, so you have to be very mindful of who’s taking the training,” Rodriguez noted. “If it’s somebody who ends up leaving the company, that training will have to be taken again.”
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