D3: Food Safety and the Garden to Cafeteria Connection

While many people tend to think of industrial-‐sized outbreaks like those of Jensen Farms’ cantaloupes or Wright County egg, there many recalls and outbreaks that stem from smaller farms and companies. AddiAonally, incidences of outbreak have emerged from the direct-‐to-‐consumer channels. They have occurred as recently as the summer of 2011. Deer droppings on strawberries from a small farm in Oregon led to a five-‐county E. coli O157:H7 outbreak; its strawberries sold predominately at roadside stands. CDC: hOp://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/ Oregon confirms deer droppings caused E. coli outbreak Aed to strawberries. (2011, August 17). America's Intelligence Wire. Retrieved from hOp://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA264575147&v=2.1&u=unc_main&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w

2

Unwashed hands that bring pathogens to the garden. Animal feces (domesAc and wild). Cross-‐contaminaAon with unsaniAzed tools and harvest containers.

3

You can’t see contaminaAon in the garden. And if crops like tomatoes or cucumbers-‐-‐things that you eat raw—have Salmonella or E. coli—there’s no way to cook it out. And, unfortunately, not everyone has informaAon about pathogen prevenAon—it’s not even on the radar of most garden managers I’ve met. In an aOempt to answer quesAons, we found that there’s liOle readily available informaAon that is scaled to garden-‐level. So, with Dr Ben Chapman, we created a document that would help out all the garden managers and volunteers to make sure their garden is as safe as possible.

5

I’m sure you’ve heard all kinds of things about the crazy poliAcs in NC. But this is different. All of the fruit and vegetables that are served in the cafeteria must come from a GAP-‐cerAfied farm (as per Department of Public InstrucAon). What that means is that the produce from the gardens in NC cannot be served in the cafeteria. That doesn’t mean that the students are not eaAng it. The barriers are just different. Gejng food from the garden into the cafeteria is THE barrier. That’s why this project began. And the benefits of the school garden are vast. We’ve got hopes-‐-‐that by making sure the gardens are the safest possible, then these kinds of policies might shik.

6

So, we started with GAP. To clarify, GAP stands for good agricultural pracAces—food safety guidelines for American farms that can choose to follow in addiAon to the regulaAons set forth by the USDA. To become GAP-‐cerAfied, a farm must go through an audit in which it proves that it has completed a laundry list of items related to soil, water, animal producAon, employee hygiene, sanitaAon. To create a document for food safety in gardens, we had to start with GAP audit, to see what the details were on food distribuAon in NC cafeterias. The USDA guide is based on the FDA’s “Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables,” known colloquially as GAP. We eventually focused on 8 areas: handwashing, site selecAon, garden design (fencing and pests), compost, water, soil, tools + sanitaAon, and volunteer know-‐how. But how the document was created is the important part. GAP Audit Checklist: hOp://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/gerile?dDocName=STELPRDC5091326

7

This is how we did it. I visited a lot of gardens-‐-‐13, in 5 counAes. And asked the garden managers quesAons—about the “story of the garden-‐-‐” how it came to be, why the pracAces in place were chosen (organic versus not-‐organic versus preOy-‐much-‐organic), types of soil, rain cisterns and barrels and municipal water, about fencing and the cost of the installaAon, about why they chose teacher-‐driven plots versus one big school garden, about compost and how they maintain it and how they knew it was cooked enough, about the garden clubs, about hand saniAzer, about the very-‐different barriers that plague the community gardens versus the school gardens. We even teamed up with a person at DPI to meet the garden managers as she spoke to the cafeteria managers about the school breakfast and lunch program, taking me hundreds of miles from my house to talk to more garden managers. Hundreds of miles later and tons of handwriOen notes later, I looked at the academic literature. I examined it for similariAes, for fact-‐checking to see if there was truth to a lot of the “old wives’ tales” I’d heard in the field. Some were valid; some were not. I also had, on my team, in addiAon to Dr Chapman (the food safety extension specialist at NC State and NC CooperaAve Extension), a fruit and vegetable specialist, experts in nutriAon and health, soil scienAsts, people who specialize in youth development and volunteer management. And many members of the team were more than well-‐versed in a variety of these things.

8

Armed with a prototype of the document’s contents, I went back into the field to talk to more garden managers. I asked them for advice, for opinions on the suggesAons we hoped to make, about language and feasibility. As in, if you read “you must take the temperature of the compost” before you use it, would you do it? Would you get a compost thermometer? (They are only about $25 but you’ve sAll got to get one.) And then, I went back to the team. Many months later, I’ve got a finished document (which we am now talking to garden managers about—26 NEW gardens this summer). Overall, This is how we did it. 1.  Recognized the issue. 2.  Went to all kinds of gardens and met with the managers and heard about their

issues. 3.  Read the academic literature. 4.  Talked to soil scienAsts, fruit and veggie specialists, youth development experts,

compost specialists. 5.  Wrote up the document. 6.  Went back to the garden managers, 7.  Edited. A lot. Talked to even more people.

9

What’s in there? I’ll go through all of the contents, but you can also find it at growingsafergardens.com and there are hard copies.

10

It’s really a lot of best pracAces. However, not every garden can do ALL of the best pracAces, so there are alternaAve as well—other ways to miAgate risk. SITE SELECTION: BP (Best pracAce): The best pracAce is to obtain the history of the site from planning officials and determine whether the garden site is suitable. If NOT: Ask the community. Ask the cooperaAon extension agent.

11

HANDWASHING. This is one of the most important. CDC says 50% of food-‐borne illnesses are linked to poor handwashing. Washing your hands is the best way to prevent Norovirus. BP: The best pracAce is to wash your hands with soap and clean, running water and dry using one-‐use only towel. IF NOT: If there is no running water available, wear disposable, single-‐use gloves while harvesAng. If the task is maintenance-‐only, tradiAonal gardening gloves are recommended.

12

WATER AND IRRIGATION: Worries on non-‐potable water—it could be the rain barrel or the well. BP: Use regulated, treated water source. Water authoriAes employ filtraAon, chlorinaAon and tesAng to ensure it meets EPA standards. IF NOT: If a well or cistern, have the water tested to see if it is up to standards before using on edibles, or hands. This is a big minimizer of potenAal microbial contaminaAon of fruits and vegetables.

13

The barrels and cisterns can easily be tested for Salmonella and E. coli.

14

I have yet to visit a garden that was not composAng in some way: cold, hot, leaf. COMPOST: There are at least 3 food safety issues here. 1. Take the temperature. It must be at least 130F for 5 days to cook out the pathogens. 2. AddiAonally, placement can be problemaAc. In NC, with the hurricanes and heavy rains, we see a lot of flooding, and suggest building the compost downhill to keep the contents from flowing into the garden in the event of a flood. OR barriers or French drains can be used to keep the contents from entering the garden. 3. Lastly, manure. While animal manure has long been considered an acceptable material to compost (the Environmental ProtecAon Agency includes it on a list of safe materials), it is not recommended due to its strong connecAon to pathogens like E. coli. Extra steps must then be taken to guarantee the safety of the finished compost. *If the garden accepts compost from another source but wants to maintain an organic garden, it is imperaAve to ask what kinds of materials are in the mixture.

15

GARDEN DESIGN: Keep out pests. Animal feces can bring pathogenic E. coli, Campylobacter, Shigella, and Salmonella, among other foodborne illness-‐causing microorganisms. (Remember-‐-‐we saw an E. coli outbreak in Oregon last summer from deer poop on strawberries—remember you can’t wash it off.) BP: Use a fence to keep out deer. Electric fences help with all sorts of pests, but are more expensive (and there is an physical safety issue at stake with the school gardens). IF NOT: Use repellents and sprays to keep out the known pests. Maintain records and try to keep animals out of the garden.

16

SANITATION AND TOOLS: We’re worried about cross-‐contaminaAon. BP: Use single-‐use gloves when harvesAng and put the harvest into clean, saniAzed containers. (saniAze with 1 tsp of bleach per gallon water) OR You can wash your hands when contaminated. And if you’re unsure of the cleanliness of the containers, new plasAc bags are a great opAon. Clean. Wash hands, cujng boards, utensils, and countertops. You wouldn’t go a restaurant without a clean kitchen; you shouldn’t use a a dirty uAlity knife to cut the garden harvest either.

17

There’s a lot of enthusiasm for gardens these days. The local food-‐service provider gave 9 gardens in the school district where I live approximately $2000 for each garden—to use in any way they saw fit. I’ve seen 25-‐tree orchards, new fences, compost tumblers, all sorts of things beyond the seeds and soil. A lot of gardens are really on top of it. Some garden managers spend a lot of Ame thinking about food safety and the prevenAon of pathogens and contaminaAon. It’s a really smart place to think about reducing risk BEFORE it gets to the kitchen (either at home or in the cafeteria). And we love the idea of gardens as suppliers, but there’s the liability issue. So, what now?

18

We went back out there—evaluaAng how the tool works. In the 25 NEW gardens that my colleague and I visited this summer, we asked more quesAons. Specifics from the document, with plans to return in the fall and see how it all fell out, to see whether the gardens implemented the curriculum. We’ve had an incredible response. Everyone has been very welcoming, even as we talk about poop, and interested in the guidelines. It’s being incorporated into classes (who take the temperature of the compost for a science course), in fact, it supports of all kinds of STEM acAviAes: designing beds as part of the engineering curriculum; employing math skills to calculate fencing; growing plants in a biotechnology lab; counAng the number of eggs hatched by hens.

19

This is where you can find the document—the enhanced version with all sorts of links—plus other garden resources, like grants and arAcles on gardening pracAces.

20

D3: Food Safety and the Garden to Cafeteria Connection

Technology

Transcript of D3: Food Safety and the Garden to Cafeteria Connection