Florida’s Abundance of Food Safety Initiatives

Also, it is another significant distinction that the CDC established the Florida Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence in 2013, one of just six such centers in the country.

The Florida Keys: Cooperation and Collaboration

Active and aggressive, that’s how best to describe Florida’s approach to food safety. So says Martha Roberts, PhD, CFS, a food industry consultant and also a special assistant in the UF/IFAS Office of Government Affairs. Dr. Roberts retired from FDACS in 2003 after 35 years of service, including the last 20 as deputy commissioner.

“With a food safety law in place since 1905, Florida has long had a strong food safety program, which includes one of the first state ISO 17025 certified food laboratories in the country,” she boasts of the state’s exemplary, pace-setting food safety endeavors.

Dr. Roberts chairs the state’s FSMA External Working Group that was established by Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam in 2010 when the proposed FSMA rules were first announced.

Under Commissioner Putnam’s leadership, Florida has embraced a proactive approach to dealing with FSMA in a team effort collaboratively with the FDACS and all segments of affected industry, Dr. Roberts emphasizes.

In a forward move, the FDACS hired the aforementioned FSMA policy director, Susan Caime Mardenborough, in 2013 with coordination of efforts, both internally within the department and externally with the affected industry and UF in mind.

“Additionally, the Commissioner wanted an external working group, open to any and all Florida food and agriculture stakeholders, including academia and industry,” Dr. Roberts says. “To that end, we have engaged about 35 people, representing fruit and vegetable growers and associations, animal feed producers, retail stores, and retail processors. And, more are welcome.”

To begin with, the Working Group held weekly conference calls. “We discussed the proposed rules line by line and prepared written comments to document everyone’s initial concerns,” Dr. Roberts relates. “We also responded to FDA’s revision.”

“Representing a diverse swath of Florida’s agriculture industry, the Florida FSMA Working Group provides a voice for Florida producers that will be impacted by FSMA,” Caime Mardenborough adds. “Along with providing comments and input to the FDA to help communicate concerns of agricultural producers, the Working Group seeks to prevent Florida producers from being at a competitive disadvantage with the implementation of these rules.”

“The philosophy of FDA from the start has been ‘educate before you regulate,’” Dr. Roberts points out. “To that end, on implementation, FDA has a cooperative contract with NASDA [National Association of State Departments of Agriculture] on the states’ involvement in produce safety rule implementation in which Florida participates. And on the education front, the PSA and cooperation of land-grant universities such as UF/IFAS, has given us the broad leadership and coordinated teamwork to provide the Florida regulatory partners and the food and agriculture industry the guidance they need to prepare for FSMA implementation.”

Thanks, Inspirational Tomatoes

Dr. Roberts is quick to credit Florida’s tomato industry for leading the way in the nation with its own food safety requirements that became formal government regulations and have inspired other commodity groups to prepare for FSMA.

“The FDACS Division of Fruit and Vegetables has been conducting annual inspections of tomato farms and packinghouses since 2008,” she notes. “These inspections have been aggressive and required. There have been recalls and lots have been destroyed if growers didn’t comply with the rules. Tomato growers are so compliant with the regulations that their main violations now are typically just in recordkeeping.”

For Florida, the major concern with the FSMA Produce Safety final rule is the expanded requirement for water sampling, to be implemented by 2020, Dr. Roberts says. The new Produce Safety rule would require numerous samples to determine the background condition of any surface water used, she explains.