The Center for Produce Safety has awarded more than $2 million toward 10 new research projects directed at answering critical questions in specific areas for food safety producers of fruits and vegetables.
The objective of these projects is practical research data that can be used at all levels of the supply chain.
Recipients include:
—Mary Anne Amalaradjou, University of Connecticut: Listeria monocytogenes growth and survival on peaches and nectarines as influenced by stone fruit packing house operations, storage and transportation conditions.
—Kyle Bibby, University of Pittsburgh: Developing cross-assembly phage as a viral indicator for irrigation waters.
—Trevor Suslow, University of California-Davis: Resolving postharvest harborage sites of Listeria monocytogenes.
—Martin Wiedmann, Cornell University: Remotely sensed and field-collected hydrological, landscape and weather data to predict the quality of surface water used for produce production.
—Meijun Zhu, Washington State University: Control of Listeria monocytogenes on apples through spray manifold-applied antimicrobial intervention.
The group also has announced its 2017 request for proposals on food safety research, with
$3 million available to fund approved research projects.
“The mission for the Center for Produce Safety is to provide and share ready-to-use, science-based solutions to prevent or minimize produce safety vulnerabilities,” Drew McDonald, vice president for quality, food safety and regulatory affairs at Church Brothers and chair for the CPS Technical Committee, said in a statement. “I expect that the outreach and interaction through discussions and on-farm visits with researchers who truly want to understand the realities of our processes and products will result in even better proposal alignment with our industry’s needs.”
To date, the Center for Produce Safety has funded 120 projects with more than $20 million.
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