Food Safety Programs for Specialty Crop Growers: Scaling Produce Food Safety Technical Assistance to Meet Growing Demand for PSA Training and GAP Third Party Certification

ABSTRACT This project builds on the momentum of recent efforts to expand wholesale market opportunities for Kentucky specialty crop growers by providing targeted educational and technical assistance support focused on meeting The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) produce food safety standards, food safety plans, wholesale quality, packing, and other post-harvest management requirements. Specifically, this project will provide produce growers with tailored one-to-one on-farm food safety educational and technical assistance through the Cultivate Kentucky Partnership (a collaborative effort between University of Kentucky, the Kentucky Horticultural Council, and a number of specialty crop stakeholders (see letters of support)) that will result in: more Kentucky produce growers having taken the Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) grower training; more Kentucky produce growers engaging with the Cultivate Kentucky Partnership to receive one on one technical assistance for the development of comprehensive farm food safety plans in preparation for the successful completion of third-party GAP audits; more third- party GAP audited farms in Kentucky; and ultimately, more sales of third-party audited, Kentucky farm-sourced specialty crops and increase the competitiveness of Kentucky specialty crop producers.