Food Protection Trends - September/October 2023 - 417

Other commonly selected barriers were insufficient time to
clean (29%), difficulty in deciding which products to use
(23%), lacking confidence in whether procedures were working
(22%), and insufficient time to train employees (20%).
Four operations (6%) indicated cost as a barrier to improving
cleaning and sanitation practices. Only two operations (3%)
said that a lack of management support was a barrier with most
respondents (75%) indicating that they did not need additional
resources to share with management or ownership.
Most operations (56%) indicated a need for additional
resources for employee training related to cleaning and
sanitizing, especially in languages other than English and/
or visual aids to support understanding across the diverse
workforce. Nearly all operations (98%) requested that
materials be available in Spanish. Other languages requested
were French Creole (n = 3), Vietnamese (n = 2), Tagalog
(n = 1), and Arabic (n = 1). This is consistent with the
findings from the 2019-2020 National Agricultural Workers
Survey (NAWS), which found that Spanish was the language
most common and comfortable to use amongst farm
workers (62%) (20). According to the NAWS survey, a
substantial percentage of farm workers cannot speak (29%)
or read (40%) English (20). Similarly, data from our survey
indicated that efforts and resources are needed for learning
materials in relevant languages to support food safety
practices in fresh produce operations. Respondents in our
survey also indicated a need for templates of records and
SOPs, and suggested the development of " how-to " videos as
a useful format for new resources.
Preferences for educational opportunities topics and
formats
The ranking of eight suggested cleaning and sanitation topics
for workshops by survey respondents is provided in Fig. 3. The
proposed topics with the highest level of interest were i) principles
and practical implementation of cleaning and sanitizing
and ii) identification of hazards and prioritizing cleaning and
sanitizing activities with approximately 60% of participants
placing these as their top rankings. In contrast, a topic focused
on recordkeeping received the lowest ranking, while establishing
a cleaning and sanitation program and verification of cleaning
and sanitation programs were of medium priority.
In-person workshop was the most preferred delivery method
(44%) (Fig. 4), while online format was preferred by 36% of respondents.
Within online options, synchronous, live (21%) was
more preferred than asynchronous, self-paced (15%). A hybrid
course structure (portions online and portions in-person) was
preferred by 20% of respondents.
In terms of who would mostly benefit from future cleaning
and sanitizing training opportunities, personnel directly performing
cleaning and sanitation were ranked as the highest priority
audience with those who supervise cleaning and sanitation
practices as a close second (Fig. 5). The survey respondents also
indicated personnel who manage food safety practices overall,
including cleaning and sanitation procedures, as higher priority.
Personnel and management with less-direct responsibilities
for cleaning and sanitation activities (e.g., cleaning/sanitizing
recordkeeping and production crew management) were of lower
priority. Overall, management of resources and purchasing were
the lowest priority audience for future cleaning/sanitation trainings;
however, responses followed a bimodal distribution with
over 20% of respondents ranking this personnel category as the
highest priority for cleaning/sanitation training (Fig. 5).
CONCLUSIONS
Surveying stakeholders in the fresh produce industry
identified key information about existing practices, barriers,
and training and resources needed to improve cleaning and
sanitation. This survey allowed for an estimation of the prevalence
of specific materials as food contact surfaces, the relative
use of classes of sanitizers, and the frequency of cleaning and/
or sanitizing different surfaces. The survey clarified that the
majority of employees who are responsible for cleaning and
sanitizing in fresh produce operations have other job responsibilities.
Large portions of the fresh produce workforce are not
fluent in English and resources in other languages are needed.
Training materials and opportunities must be designed with
these realities in mind. The optimal format, according to the
majority of respondents, is a half day, in-person workshop
targeted towards the personnel who are directly responsible for
the cleaning and sanitizing activities at their respective facility.
Collectively, these data helped guide a virtual cleaning and
sanitizing workshop for produce industry led by the members
of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition of the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration, and Extension and Associations
supporting produce industry in 2021. In addition, we
are currently developing an in-person workshop for regional
trainings in the Pacific Northwest.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Funding for this project was partially provided by the
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Critical
Agricultural Research and Extension program project
2021-68008-34098. The authors would like to acknowledge
the members of the cleaning and sanitizing workshop
development group, including Karen Killinger and Laura
Grunenfelder (FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied
Nutrition), Trevor Suslow (formerly Produce Marketing
Association and University of California at Davis), Jennifer
McEntire and Emily Griep (United Fresh Produce Association,
now known as International Fresh Produce Association),
and Billy Mitchell (National Farmers Union), that
provided critical review of the survey questionnaire, and
helped share the survey nationally. We would also like to
acknowledge Stephanie Brown (Western Regional Center
to Enhance Food Safety) for helping review and promote
the survey, and share it among the Western region food
safety networks.
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