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market-farming - Salad mix legislation

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  • From: Adriana Gutierrez & Dennis LaGatta <gutierrez-lagatta AT home.com>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Salad mix legislation
  • Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 04:32:28 -0400



> Interestingly, Whole Foods recently shut the market down. The reason given
> was the
> legislation (based on incidents in California, I think?) relating to
> sterilizing the
> processing equipment used for salad mix, and getting certified for it. The
> cost of
> certification is laughably high, and local farmers couldn't afford it. Now
> salad mix
> cannot be locally grown - or offered in front of the store.

Does anybody have any additional information on salad mix related
legislation? I think it is something all of us who grow it should be
concerned about for health AND business reasons. I assume that the
legislation in question relates to post harvest handling (cooling,
washing, packing) in a certified food processing facility which is very
expensive to set up. I believe that sprouts have been declared a
processed product by the FDA and as such require certification, has this
line been crossed yet for salad mix? Or is it only for that which is
labeled ready-to-eat?

One question I have relates to safety issues at harvest. Most produce,
for example broccoli, is cut once in the fields and the stem is then
re-cut by the consumer at the time of consumption. I assume that it is
possible to get some contamination from field soils, dust etc. into the
tissues of the leaves at the point of cutting. Since the thousands of
leaves making up a batch of mesclun are never re-cut again is there the
potential for some contamination at the cut site that is impossible to
remove through normal washing techniques?

Adriana




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