The overall goal of the Southern Center is to build a collaborative infrastructure in the Southern US to support Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) compliant training, education, extension, outreach, and technical assistance as it relates to the produce industry.
The FDA published a final rule that revises certain pre-harvest agricultural water provisions for covered produce (other than sprouts) in Subpart E of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule. Specifically, this rule replaces the previous microbial quality criteria and testing requirements for pre-harvest agricultural water for covered produce (other than sprouts) with requirements for systems-based, pre-harvest agricultural water assessments for hazard identification and risk management decision-making purposes.
These assessments are used to identify conditions that are reasonably likely to introduce known or reasonably foreseeable hazards into or onto produce or food contact surfaces, and to determine whether, and how soon, corrective or mitigation measures must be implemented to minimize risks associated with pre-harvest agricultural water.
These requirements reflect recent science, findings from investigations of several produce-related outbreaks, and information and feedback from a variety of stakeholders. The requirements are designed to achieve improved public health protections, while also being more feasible to implement across the wide variety of agricultural water systems, uses, and practices, and adaptable to future advancements in agricultural water quality science.
Requirements for harvest and post-harvest uses of agricultural water, and the agricultural water requirements for sprouts, have not changed. Sprouts are subject to specific pre-harvest agricultural water requirement, and the compliance dates are for sprouts requirements have passed.
The FDA announced in March 2017 the intent to review Subpart E of the Produce Safety Rule (PSR) to consider how the requirements for agricultural water might be simplified. The proposal published in December 2021 does not include changes to the harvest and post-harvest requirements for agricultural water. In July 2022, the FDA issued a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking to extend the compliance dates for the pre-harvest agricultural water requirements for non-sprout covered produce.
SRIPS 2025 took place at the Embassy Suites and Conference Hotel in Montgomery, Alabama. It was a two-day program conference gathered by a group of regulatory bodies from states from the Southeast region of US along with growers, Extension educators and produce safety researchers. In addition, there was a tour on day three to the Tuskegee University Black Belt Marketing and Innovation Center dedicated to research and education.
For presentations and program book, please go to: Resources.
We are offering In- Person- training courses again, starting in January 2023. Some other training programs have been moved to virtual platforms.
