CA Strawberry Commission Recognized for Food Safety Guidelines

ANN ARBOR, Mich.NSF International announced the recipients of the 2010 Food Safety Leadership Awards.

Among the winners was the California Strawberry Commission Food Safety Team, for Innovation in Training. After developing one of the first commodity-specific food safety guidelines, the California Strawberry Commission (CSC)a state government agency that represents growers, shippers and processors of California strawberriesconducted an industry-wide food safety risk assessment to review the entire production chain throughout the state. This assessment identified key areas of potential food safety risk. They then updated the CSC Food Safety Program using best practices from the produce industry and providing effective food safety training programs and instructional materials. The end result was a new program called Food Safety Practices for Strawberry Harvest Workers.  The CSC also developed language-neutral training materials for their harvest crews.

Using the U.S. Department of Agricultures (USDA) Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and the CSC Food Safety Program, the training program was developed in English and Spanish and included a field-ready training tool, Power Point presentation, as well as a train-the-trainer and food safety teaching workshop.

Each year, NSF solicits nominations from throughout the food safety community and convenes an independent panel of food safety experts from academia, industry and the regulatory community to select the winners. Nominations are evaluated on creativity, innovation, design and the contributions made to the advancement of food safety. This year, six individuals or organizations were recognized in the categories of outstanding innovation in: Training, Equipment Design, System Improvement, and Education.

NSF is an independent, not-for-profit organization committed to protecting and improving public health and safety, with a focus on food, drinking water, indoor air and the environment.  As part of this commitment, NSF created the Food Safety Leadership Awards (FSLA) program to encourage the development of innovative technologies and learning programs that advance food safety efforts.

Click here for the complete list of award recipients.