Cumberland County Ag Agent Dr. Wesley Kline, has been educating farmers statewide about on-farm food safety for over ten years. Most people don’t know that Wes chose this focus not because of a passionate interest in it, but because farmers asked him to do it and he agreed that it represented an important issue confronting growers.

The introduction of third party audits began the need for food safety education on New Jersey farms. Educational demands continue due to increasing produce buyer requirements and establishment of the federal government Food Safety Modernization Act. Meredith Melendez, Senior Program Coordinator of Mercer County and Wes Kline, make up the Rutgers On-Farm Food Safety Team. We are supported by Chris Kleinguenther of the New Jersey Department of Agriculture.

We expect to hold 8 to 10 training workshops this coming winter focusing on four tracks:
1) Preparing for a third party audit
2) General food safety training
3) Preparing for the Food Safety Modernization Acts Produce Rule
4) Advanced food safety

Here is a brief overview of food safety related programming offered by the Rutgers On-Farm Food Safety Program.
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Worker health and hygiene training for farm workers, including family members, is an important step in reducing the risk for human pathogen spread on farms.  Training of workers does not need to be complicated, but does need to be specific to your operation and your farm food safety plan (everyone should have one).

Worker health and hygiene training is required for passing a third party audit.  Documentation must be kept regarding what workers were trained, when they were trained and what materials were used for the training.

A 15 minute training DVD produced by Cornell is available for $20 at both the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Cumberland County office and the Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Mercer County office.  This DVD is an excellent starting point for the training of farm workers on proper health and hygiene practices.