b"There Shouldnt Be a Concern About What Youre EatingRecalls might be scary, but that means the food safety system is working correctly.Alex MartinWHEN THINKING ABOUTfood safety, theUnfortunately, sometimes that means the farm-first thing that probably pops into your minders have to eat the cost to change to regulations.is food recalls. You might even think to earlier thisTo a certain degree, the industry has had to year when Jif peanut butter was recalled due to anchange to make sure that were meeting those con-investigation of salmonella.sumer needswhich, as a farmer, I have to adapt Though you might hear about food recalls andto that, says Clinton Monchuk, executive director see reports about it in the news, theres one bigof Farm & Food Care Saskatchewan, noting that misconception that needs to be corrected: recallsat the end of the day, the food quality and food dont happen as often as you think they do, andsafety still remains extremely high.thats due to strict food safety regulations andOn the produce side, regulations in the U.S. careful hands of agribusinesses and growers alike. focus on best practices on farm and mitigating risk.Im always amazed at how safe our food supplyIts based on the federal levelthe ProduceWhen you go actually is, and how rarely we see these outbreaks,Safety Rule, which is all encompassing on all says Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill Universitysproduce on our practices, says Pezzini. It goes allto a grocery Office for Science and Society. Now of course,the way down to the quality of the water and your when there is an outbreak, it gets a lot of publicity,water source to worker hygiene. Its about produc- store, it should but people dont think about the fact that 99% ofing the safest produce possibleit is really rarebe a given that the time theres no concern at all about what theyreto have a foodborne outbreak, but we also have to eating. Its totally safe. say just one is too many. the food is safe. It's important to remember that no industry isAs an industry, its important to raise the bar. Clinton Monchukperfect, which is why outbreaks can occur. Consumers do have some controltheyre When you take into account all of the possiblenot going to buy a product that they dont think is sources of contaminationfrom animals poopingsafe, Pezzini says. on the produce to transportation if the truck isntUltimately, the goal with food safety is to ensure cleaned property to if a supermarket attendantconsumers dont have any concerns in the grocery doesnt wash their hands properly . Its amazingstore.how much extreme care is taken, Schwarcz says.When you go to a grocery store, it should be a Conveying why food safety is a big deal to con- given that the food is safe, says Monchuk. If there sumers is imperative. is a food recall, thats a good thing. That means the To the produce industry food safety is per- system is workingweve detected it and were sonal. Its the same food that we put on the tablespulling it off the shelf.for our families, and the same food that ourBut, it doesnt stop there during an outbreak. employees take home for their families, says JoeTheres a lot that goes on behind the scenes, Pezzini, chairman of the board of the Center forincluding thorough investigations.Produce Safety. The bottom line is that were pro- Its about doing a thorough investigation, andON THE WEBWHERE viding healthy food to protect consumers. its always very frustrating, Pezzini says. When Not only is it a personal endeavor to everyonetheres a situation where we dont get conclu- Want to listen to the whole involved in maintaining food safety, but theres a lotsive results, doing a root cause analysis helps toconversation and learn about other of strict regulations that come with food safety. Onunderstand what happened so we can improve ourmisconceptions people have in top of that, theyre changing consistently to ensurepractices if they need to be changed. Thats whatthe realm of food safety? Listen at: consumers get the safest food possible. were all looking for.SW youtube.com/watch?v=uINB3miraFA58/ SEEDWORLD.COMJANUARY 2023"