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tion of food safety practices into audits, foodborne illness
outbreaks attributed to produce continued to occur, leading
to the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act
(FSMA) in 2011 (7). The FSMA was signed into law with
the intent of putting measures into place that would take
a preventive approach to reducing the incidence of foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States. The FSMA
contains many rules and outlines mandatory food safety
regulations for growers. With this new regulation, the FDA
recognized the need for education and training support for
the fruit and vegetable industry to help producers understand and implement practices required by the regulation.
Cornell University, home to the National GAPs Program
since 1999, formed the Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) via a
cooperative agreement between Cornell University, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the FDA to develop a standardized curriculum and nationwide educational
outreach program for growers.
In 2010, the PSA began developing a standardized
national training program and outreach plan to meet
the overarching goal of providing the produce industry
and associated groups with training and educational
opportunities related to GAPs and the regulatory
requirements set forth by the FSMA Produce Safety
Rule (PSR) (19). In addition to the practices required
within the PSR, it contains an educational requirement
in §112.22(c), which states that "At least one supervisor
or responsible party for your farm must have successfully
completed food safety training at least equivalent to that
received under standardized curriculum recognized as
adequate by the FDA" (19). This educational requirement
is intended to familiarize growers and farm supervisors
with the PSR requirements and with the GAPs that
support regulatory compliance.
In 2013, the FDA estimated that of the 121,116 total
produce farms in the United States, 35,029 would be
covered by the PSR (18). The remaining farms would be
exempt from the regulation because they fall under the
small farm exclusion, are qualified exempt based on food
sales and market channel, grow only crops that are rarely
consumed raw, or grow only crops that are designated
for commercial processing (18). However, the farms that
fall under an exclusion or exemption may be pressured to
implement PSR requirements by their buyers (19). To meet
the national training need, the PSA established a Train-theTrainer program that would develop a cadre of qualified
PSA Trainers and Lead Trainers to teach the PSA Grower
Training Course. Once a participant has attended the 2-day
PSA Train-the-Trainer Course, they are a PSA Trainer
and are eligible to apply to be a PSA Lead Trainer. These
processes are designed to develop trainers who will be
able to effectively and consistently deliver the PSA Grower
Training Course and respond to grower questions during
the training, so that course participants are well informed
and prepared to implement FSMA PSR requirements (12).
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Food Protection Trends November/December

This article contains an outline of the curriculum
development process, presents evaluation results from
the national rollout of the PSA Train-the-Trainer Course,
describes the feedback received as the program was
launched, and explains how the information gained from
course evaluations was used to address outreach needs. This
article further describes actions taken by the PSA to nimbly
respond to feedback and meet the needs of trainers as they
begin delivering the PSA Grower Training Course across
the country.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
PSA Grower Training Curriculum development
As a first step in the development process, a GAPs
Education and Training Materials Conference was hosted
in Orlando, FL on 29 and 30 June 2011. The conference
was attended by 125 individuals from academia, industry,
and regulatory agencies from 28 U.S. states and Spain (9).
The goal of the conference was to review existing outreach
materials in an effort to avoid duplicating materials that
already existed. An Educational Materials Showcase held
during the conference allowed for the sharing of materials
and discussions between participants, including those
interested in the materials and those who had developed
them. A recurring theme at the conference was that food
safety standards should not vary, but how the practices are
implemented might vary depending on farm size, location,
commodities grown, and other farm-specific attributes.
The PSA also shared how it was working to identify
challenges to understanding and implementing GAPs on
small and very small farms through the development of 10
working committees that had started to meet. These efforts
were key to developing the new PSA Grower Training
Curriculum. Meeting participants were encouraged to join
the working committees and to collaborate with the PSA
as it moved forward. Between May 2011 and April 2012,
178 individuals participated on 10 working committees,
and on average each individual served on 3 committees
(Fig. 1). These committees collectively met 72 times to
discuss challenges related to food safety understanding
and implementation in each of the focus areas. Each
committee also developed recommendations to the
Executive Committee, including critical concepts that
would be used to guide curriculum content development,
learning objectives, and areas key to developing competent
trainers (11). Working committee recommendations
can be accessed on the PSA Website (https://producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/alliance/committees/workingcommittee/). Additional grower input on the format and
content of the PSA standardized curriculum was gathered
via eight nationwide focus groups with 89 unique growers
from farms of various sizes that engaged in diverse farming
practices (e.g., organic and conventional) (10). The grower
input was incorporated into the curriculum content and
development process. Most notably, the growers requested a

https://producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/alliance/committees/working-committee https://producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/alliance/committees/working-committee https://producesafetyalliance.cornell.edu/alliance/committees/working-committee

Food Protection Trends - November/December 2020

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