Food safety for school gardens

Dr. Ben Chapman and Ashley ChaifetzNorth Carolina State UniversityNC Cooperative Extension

Foodborne illness in the US

• 48 million cases of foodborne illness• 127,839 hospitalizations• 3,037 deaths

-in-

Food safety in the home

Retail stores

Restaurants

Volunteers

Producers and processors

Who is at most risk?

• Carnivore, herbivore, omnivore, locavore

• All at risk for foodborne illness

• Bacteria are blind to source, they don’t care whether the product they live in is sold at a retail store or farmers market

Produce-related outbreaks

• Over 500 since 1990• Tens of Thousands of illnesses

o Leafy greenso Tomatoeso Melonso Berrieso Fresh herbs

E. coli O157:H7,lettuce, California, 1996• lettuce greens -- radicchio, frisee arugula –

harvested, rinsed,packaged into premix salads at Fancy Cutt Farms Inc., California

• 61 people sick, E. coli O157:H7 in eastern U.S.; 35%hospitalized

• 3-year-old Connecticut girl HUS, damaged vision

• cattle pen next to salad washing area• routes of contamination were all around

E. coli O157:H7, lettuce, California, 1996• lettuce grown in fields where cattle grazed in

winter• no handwashing facilities• failed to chlorinate wash water from well,

physically lower than cattle barn• despite failings, company continued to operate• "Why haven't I been closed down? Why haven't I

been sued? It's very simple. We were cleared of it."Fancy Cutt president, Robert Chavez

Spinach linked E. coli O157 outbreak 2006200 people, 26 states, 3 dead

Garden-to-fork continuum• Raw product (pre-harvest)

Farm-to-fork continuum• Raw product (pre-harvest)

• Harvest

Farm-to-fork continuum• Raw product (pre-harvest)

• Harvest• Processing & Storage (post-harvest)

There’s not a whole lot of data available about food safety in gardens.

Identified are key areas of risk and best garden practices:

•Site Selection•Water•Compost•Animals•Handwashing•Sanitation•Tools•Volunteers

Site Selection

•The best practice: obtain the history of the site from planning officials. • If the history is unavailable, ask around. •Learning along the way is tough. The history of the site could divulge the potential for an incredible amount of flooding or animal troubles

Hands

Handwashing •The best practice: wash hands with soap and clean, running water, and dry using a one-use towel. Wear disposable, single-use gloves while harvesting. •If there is no running water available, still wear disposable, single-use gloves while harvesting. If the task is maintenance-only, traditional gardening gloves are fine.•Hand sanitizing is not washing. Use it only in conjunction with other practices.

Managing water

Water •The best practice: use a tested water source (municipal or city).•Get the water tested and make sure it is up to EPA drinking water standards before you use it for watering or washing.•Without knowing about the safety of your water, you could be introducing pathogens into your garden.

Compost •The best practice: use certified compost. If self-composting, place compost bin away from garden. Use a long-stemmed thermometer to check that compost has been 130F for at least 3 days.• If the compost is already in use, create barriers to keep the contents from getting into the garden, with careful attention on flooding.•Do not use animal feces in the compost.

Recent outbreak linked to deer droppings• 35 acre farm• 1 death, 14 illnesses• Six samples of deer poop from Jaquith Strawberry Farm in Oregon tested positive for the E. coli O157:H7 strain

• The positive tests probably indicate that deer around Jaquith’s property carry O157:H7

Animals•The best practice: use a fence to keep out animals (domestic and wild). •If a fence is out of the question, use repellents and sprays to keep out the known pests. Maintain records and attempt to prevent them from entering the garden. •Just because the animals are not visiting the garden when the gardeners are does not mean they are not in the garden.

Sanitation and tools • The best practice is to

wear single-use, latex gloves when harvesting and put the fruits and vegetables into clean and sanitized containers.•If there are no gloves available, wash your hands. If you are unsure when the containers were last washed, put the harvest into new plastic bags instead.•Do not re-use plastic bags or put the harvest into wooden/cardboard/waxed boxes or unwashed buckets.

Volunteer management•Do not treat the gardeners like employees. •The best way to make sure the safety procedures are enacted is to explain why they need to be done•Prepare an orientation•Make it easy to follow the procedures and obtain answers to questions•Set the standard

chapmanfoodsafety.wordpress.com/garden

Dr. Ben Chapmanbenjamin_chapman@ncsu.eduFollow me on twitter @benjaminchapman

919 809 3205www.foodsafetyinfosheets.comwww.barfblog.com