Food Safety Resources

From NECAFS and recent Food Safety Mid Atlantic

I am attending my first in-person conference since the beginning of the pandemic. This is a special conference for me as the North East Center to Advance Food Safety (NECAFS) was the first food safety meetings I attended.  It is the perfect meeting for me as everyone else is also enthusiastically helping small farmers and food businesses and we share many similar experiences.

NECAFS is a collaboration among the 12 US North-East states (CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT, WV) and the District of Columbia to advance understanding and practice of improved food safety among the region’s small and medium-sized produce growers and processors. The goal of NECAFS is to build a regional network to increase the understanding and adoption of established food safety standards, guidance, and protocols for those affected by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). NECAFS focuses on the needs of small and medium-sized produce farms, beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, small processors, or small fresh fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers.

As I work with small processors, I enjoy being on the preventive control working group and supporting the development of resources for small manufacturers which I can also use for my clients. 

NECAFS Resources

I often recommend the PCHF Toolkit to my clients and other small food businesses. The Toolkit gathers much of the information needed for businesses shifting their food safety program to the Food Safety Modernization Act’s Preventive Control for Human Food Rule.

Another great resource is the Food Safety Clearing House. The Clearinghouse is a curated and crowd-sourced collection of Produce Safety Rule (PSR) and Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule (PCHFR) resources related to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The goal of the Clearinghouse is to connect food safety people, projects and publications across the nation with trusted sources of food safety information. 

Check out these great resources to use them with your food safety program development. 

New Resources from Food Safety Mid Atlantic 

January’s newsletter shares some of our successes and desires at Food Safety Mid Atlantic. 

A recent blog post was about Standard Operating Procedures.

After checking out the resources from Food Safety Mid Atlantic and NECAFS, let me know what else you want to read about. 

Who Writes Food Crumbs?

Cathy Davies runs a food safety consultancy, Food Safety Mid Atlantic, supporting specialty food businesses with their food safety plans and programs. If you are interested in learning more about my consulting services, please schedule a free call. 

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