CEA Growers Team Up
Last week, several large controlled environment agriculture (CEA) growers announced they are working together to establish the first food safety group geared specifically toward CEA products.
The goal of this group is to establish food safety standards to protect consumer health.
The first growers to join the coalition are BrightFarms, AeroFarms and Little Leaf Farms. More growers are expected to join the effort in the coming months.
The group will officially kick off with an inaugural meeting during the United Fresh co-located 2018 Expos taking place June 25-27, in Chicago.
“The growing methods in our industry are different as compared to centralized and long-distance field-grown produce. This coalition provides an opportunity for all brands in the space to collaborate in an effort to further protect consumers by establishing standards and sharing insights,” said BrightFarms CEO Paul Lightfoot. “This is a critically important step in maintaining consumer confidence and supporting the growth of our industry.”
“We take food safety very seriously and are proud to help lead this effort to elevate this critical topic not only for CEA growers, but also the industry overall including our retailer partners and ultimately the consumer,” said AeroFarms CEO David Rosenberg.
The group has the full support of two major industry associations — United Fresh Produce Association and the Produce Marketing Association (PMA).
“By coming together, these leaders will advance food safety for controlled environment growers and for the fresh produce industry as a whole, which in turn will benefit consumers and public health,” said Bob Whitaker, PMA’s chief science and technology officer. “They ask good questions about how to ensure their particular practices produce safe products, and have demonstrated they are willing to learn from and share ideas on risk- and science-based food safety with their open agriculture counterparts.”
You can be a part of this group too. All CEA produce organizations are invited to join the coalition to help shape the model and standard of food safety to protect consumer health.
For additional information or to join send an email to: ceafoodsafety@gmail.com.
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