The FSMA Produce Safety Rule does not give specifics on establishing no-harvest buffer zones, and it can be difficult for growers to determine the size of a no-harvest buffer zone when they find poop in the field. Laurel Dunn, assistant professor and food safety extension specialist at the University of Georgia, and Shirley Micallef, professor in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture & Center for Food Safety and Security Systems at the University of Maryland, have conducted research on the dispersal of contamination due to rain splash on feces in produce fields. In this episode, Phil Tocco, extension educator for on-farm produce safety at Michigan State University Extension, talks with Laurel and Shirley to find out what they learned from their research, and what growers can take away from their findings.
Additional Resources
Full research article: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2024.1370495/full
