September 2020 - 12

FOOD SAFETY
SAFETY
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
of interest. In the 2018 investigation,
officials from the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control, the FDA and state
authorities found the same bacterial
strain from the outbreaks in an
agricultural water reservoir.
" That's a problem wherever you go, "
Smith said. " Anything you can learn
about pathogen transfer from water
sources is extremely important. CPS
has done a lot of work in that arena,
really focused on leafy greens, but
going in other directions, too. But a
lot of the research has focused on leafy
greens, and there's no doubt we need it,
because we're growing out in an open
environment, in the good, old fresh air
of nature. And so we're subject to more
potential risk. "
The Food Safety Modernization Act's
Produce Rule in recent years updated
standards for growers nationally, but
Smith said that large growers in the
produce industry itself are far beyond
the minimum requirements of the
rule. And CPS sponsors new research
needed, becoming - he said - not " a
source " but " the source " of research in
the field.
CPS awards grants to researchers
Victor Smith, left, CEO of JV Companies, and Israel Morales, co-owner of JV Farms Organic, in a photo from 2014. Photo: JV Farms Organic
internationally as well as at U.S.
land-grant universities. The researchers
are required to publish the research
in a timely fashion, Smith said. CPS
publishes its research findings annually,
and they are online.
Working with companies
CPS works with individual produce
companies on research, and JV Smith
Companies has twice donated to group
to support projects. One study that JV
Smith donated toward found that stray
dogs and coyotes are possible vectors
for certain strains of E. coli.
In response to the Romaine lettuce-linked
outbreak, Smith's company donated
two separate 3-acre " blocks " or fields
where researchers could replicate large,
at-scale Romaine lettuce production and
harvesting for their experiments.
" Certain plants, they got harvested
and then put on this machine - the
transfer belt - and then went up the
incline belt and into a chute, where the
product itself would fall into the field
bins, " Smith said. " We found a critical
point where it went up the belt and into
the chute where we found pathogens
there consistently and knowing we
had cross-contaminated from prior
plants being harvested. Plants that were
healthy and had been harvested on the
same machine got cross-contaminated
at a particular point, which was
fascinating. It was a good finding. "
Oddly enough, the food safety field
has remained relatively quiet during the
global pandemic. As a vector for the
COVID-19 virus, food remains " low
risk, " Smith said.
" So far, we're not aware of any
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September 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2020