Center for Produce Safety symposium to present latest findings on fresh produce safety

The symposium Fresh Produce Safety Research: Insights That Matter, organized by the Center for Produce Safety, will bring together leading scientists presenting final reports on priority research advancing produce safety.

The program will address key areas such as risk modeling, agricultural water, integrated bird pest management, pathogen detection, enteric virus survival, fresh-cut sanitation, and food safety risks associated with produce handling and process controls.

Each presentation will highlight current knowledge, recent advances, and their implications for the produce industry. Members of the Industry Advisory Councils will also provide practical insights on how these findings can be applied to real-world operations.

The symposium will provide an overview of research aimed at improving food safety practices across the fresh produce supply chain, covering both preharvest and postharvest stages.

Among the research topics to be presented are:

Flexible risk process models to quantify residual risks and the impact of interventions

Matthew Stasiewicz, Ph.D., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Integrated bird pest management in fresh produce fields

Chetan Badgujar, Ph.D., University of Tennessee

Screening soft fruits for intact hepatitis A virions

Aaron Bivins, Ph.D., Louisiana State University

Survival of pathogens on work-in-process fresh-cut produce ingredients

Xuetong Fan, Ph.D., USDA ARS Eastern Regional Research Center

Sanitation protocols for non-conventional food-contact surface materials used in produce packinghouses

Kristen Gibson, Ph.D., University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

Assessment of infectious human enteric virus survival in produce

Susana Guix, Ph.D., University of Barcelona

Screening assay for hepatitis A virus infectivity

Lee-Ann Jaykus, Ph.D., North Carolina State University

Recovery efficiency methods for Cyclospora

Asis Khan, Ph.D., USDA-ARS

DNA isolation procedures from limited numbers of Cyclospora oocysts

Scott Lenaghan, Ph.D., University of Tennessee

Antimicrobial activity of food-grade compounds in fruit wax coatings

Nitin Nitin, Ph.D., University of California, Davis

Risk assessment tool for fresh produce production and landscape use

Alda Pires, Ph.D., University of California, Davis

Risk ranking tools for agricultural water Subpart E hazards

Channah Rock, Ph.D., University of Arizona

Screening assays for infectious hepatitis A virus on frozen berries

Jose Santos Garcia Alvarado, Ph.D., Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

Food safety risks associated with waxing roller brushes

Luxin Wang, Ph.D., University of California, Davis