I had a question come into my office the other
day asking about the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and how it will affect
community gardens, demonstration gardens and farmers in general who donate
produce to local food pantries.
I checked in with Marlin Bates, University of Missouri Regional Horticulture Specialist in the Kansas City area. Here is his response.
“Basically,
what should we be concerned with in regards to the FSMA?”
Great
question. I’ll attempt to answer it in two parts:
As
for what you (or anyone like you who grows fresh fruits/vegetables strictly for
donation) need to be concerned about as it relates to FSMA:
My
best interpretation is that the proposed rule would not apply (not to be
confused with being exempt from the rule) to your operation because your farm
on average (in the previous 3 years) sold less than $25,000 worth of food
products.
As
for your other concerns about liability:
Thank
you for astutely pointing out the potentially exploitable hole in the armor of
the organization. There are steps that you (and other groups that grow food for
donation) could take to reduce the likelihood of microbial contamination of the
food you produce/donate. It’s probably not a bad idea to have some sort of plan
in place to ensure these contamination reduction measures are consistently executed.
However, even this doesn’t eliminate liability (but it does reduce the
likelihood of contamination and provide evidence of due diligence in the event
of prosecution/suit).
Next
learn as much as you can about developing a food safety plan.
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