Food Protection Trends - March/April 2018 - 112

Consumption of fresh produce in the United States has
increased dramatically in recent years and is reflected in
an upward trend of direct consumer purchase from smallscale farmers. According to the USDA, revenues from local
food sales exceeded $7 billion in 2012, a marked increase
from the $1 billion value of local food sale revenues in
2005 (28). Fresh produce sales directly from producers to
consumers have increased dramatically and account for a
substantial proportion of local food sales. Recent data suggest
that fresh produce growers prefer to establish customer
bases in the local community by selling face-to-face (17).
Farmers' markets provide an increasingly popular vector
for direct sale of fresh produce from growers to consumers.
According to the USDA, the number of farmers' markets
in the USDA National Farmers Market Directory has more
than quadrupled since 1994. Nearly 8,500 farmers' markets
operated in 2015, up from about 7,200 in 2011, 6,100 in
2010, 2,800 in 1998, and 1,800 in 1994 (26). In Kentucky,
more than 159 farmers' markets now deliver fresh local
produce to consumers (16).
Increased access to local fresh produce has occurred
concurrently with an uptick in on-farm pathogenic
contamination and subsequent foodborne illness
outbreaks (7). Produce, including fresh produce sold at
farmers' markets, can result in transmission of pathogens
resulting in approximately 46% of yearly foodborne
illnesses, and leafy greens are the most common fresh
produce type to be linked to such illnesses (20). In 2006,
an Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with
spinach in Kentucky sickened eight people, 4 of whom
required hospitalization, with 2 developing hemolyticuremic syndrome (1). Between 1998 and 2015, Kentucky
had 46 outbreaks, which resulted in 8,411 illnesses, 1,845
hospitalizations, and 31 deaths (4).
The potential for contamination with pathogens
on farms is highlighted by the recent finding in the
southeastern United States that small-scale producers
engage in a number of unsafe practices, including
application of non-composted soil amendments and little
or no sanitizing of food-handling surfaces (12). Irrigation
water safety is another area of concern, with a recent
study of small-scale farmers in New York finding that the
majority of growers surveyed had opted to use surface
water, but less than one-fifth of them elected to test water
for microbes in accordance with GAPs (3). Data collected
in Delaware and Maryland in 2016 found that threequarters of small-scale farmers who participated in the
study did not conduct testing for E. coli in their irrigation
water (18).
Under the provisions of the Food Safety Modernization
Act of 2011, many small farms that sell fresh produce at
farmers' markets are exempt from mandatory food safety
certifications. Small farms that sell a yearly average of $25,000
or less of fresh produce in a three-year time frame are not

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Food Protection Trends March/April

required to maintain a food safety certification and may sell
fresh produce directly to consumers with no food safety audit
(8). Because GAPs certification is voluntary, use of the audit
is low among small-scale farmers, and many GAPs food safety
principles have yet to gain traction (10). A recent survey
of fresh produce growers across the Midwestern United
States found that although most participants were familiar
with GAPs, they were not fully implementing them on their
farms and furthermore did not believe that the majority of
pathogenic contamination in fresh produce were the result
of on-farm practices (14). Similar surveys conducted in
Vermont and Oregon found that GAPs certification had
been achieved by only 22% and 25% of surveyed growers,
respectively (2, 22). However, a 2016 study of GAPs
implementation by Mid-Atlantic fresh produce growers
found that surveyed growers had begun to increase microbial
water testing and harvest sanitation practices as well as to
train farm workers in GAPs, indicating a possible success of
educational outreach (18).
The current food safety practices of fresh produce farmers,
their knowledge of safety precaution awareness, and the
likelihood of their implementing food safety practices such
as GAPs are unknown in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
The goal of the present study was to assess current farm
management practices utilized by Kentucky produce farmers,
evaluate their knowledge of food safety, and investigate their
attitudes toward GAPs. The study collected data on food
safety practices through social surveys administered at fresh
produce farms and completed by farmers' market vendors.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Description
Surveys were administered to farmers' market vendors at
farmers' markets in 21 counties across the Commonwealth
of Kentucky. The survey tracked GAPs acceptance and
implementation, food safety knowledge and current
practices, perceived barriers to GAPs certification, and
attitudes regarding food safety.
Questionnaire development
The survey consisted of 31 questions divided into four
main sections: demographics, requirements and current
practices, barriers and drivers for adoption, and future
participation and interests in GAPs (Attachment A). The
demographic portion of the survey included questions
measuring the respondent's gender, highest educational
degree earned, year of birth, size of their farm, their profile
as a producer, and their home county. The second section
of the survey included questions about the farmers' water
source used for irrigation, types of products grown and
method of sale, and previous or current participation in
fresh produce audit requirements. The third portion allowed
farmers to elaborate on their experience with GAPs or their
perception of GAPs, and what perceived barriers prevented

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