Food Safety Audit Perils

摘要

ANY smaller growers were relieved earlier this year when I lie Food Safety Modernization Act was passed with the inclusion of the Tester Amendment, which exempts growers with sales under $500,000 from FDA food safety laws. However, besides the obviousdamage a food safety problem could do to any grower's business, there are other practical reasons for implementing a thorough food safety program. Chief among them is that such a program will allow smaller growers to widen their scope of potential customers. University of California Cooperative Extension Small Farm Adviser Richard Molinar says you should be minking about where the crops you grow will eventually end up. "You don't have to be third-party audited; it depends on your buyers — whatever they require," he said. "If you gross less than $500,000, there's no requirement, it's all up to your buyers."