Produce Safety Resources

Are training materials available?

Training materials and resources have been developed with the following federal agencies and partners:

• USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS)
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• Institute of Child Nutrition (ICN)
• School Nutrition Association (SNA)

What resources can graduates use to train others?

We offer many types of resources to help PSU graduates teach produce safety topics. Use the menu below to learn more about each type of resource available for PSU graduates.

Take-Home Training for Professional Standards

We are excited to offer the following take-home training modules, which will help PSU graduates to spread the knowledge they acquired at PSU. Participants in these trainings can receive the designated professional standards credits. Please check the speaker notes for each module for more information about the codes and credit hours associated with each module.

The modules can be presented as individual training sessions, or they may be presented together as part of a larger training event. We suggest presenting the modules in the order that they are listed below if they are combined for a larger event, in order to best represent the farm to fork process.

PSU graduates, please feel free to use the speaker notes as a guide and to incorporate your own experience and to suit your audience. If you have any questions regarding these training materials, please contact the FNS Produce Safety University program manager.

• Food Safety Overview
• Growing Food Safely
• Farm to School- Sourcing Local
• Quality and Condition
• Buying Smart, Buying Safe
• Receiving and Storage
• Safe Preparation, Handling and Storage

Produce Safety Fact Sheets

Use these resources to expand your knowledge about specific topics related to produce safety.

• Conducting a Mock Recall of Produce in a School Nutrition Operation
• Food Safety Practices to Expect from Your Fresh Produce Distributor
• Food Safety Practices to Expect from Your Fresh-Cut Produce Processor
• Verifying On-Farm Food Safety
• Ensuring Traceability of Fresh Produce
• Food Safety Tips for School Gardens
• Handling Fresh Produce in Classrooms
• Best Practices: Handling Fresh Produce in Schools
• Handling Fresh Produce on Salad Bars
• Preserving Locally Harvested Produce in School Meals
• Take Advantage of Nature's Bounty: Consider Vacuum Seal
• Storing Fresh Produce

Produce Safety Information Sheets

Use these sheets to learn detailed, commodity specific information about produce

• Apples
• Bananas
• Broccoli
• Cantaloupes
• Carrots
• Grapes
• Lettuce
• Oranges
• Squash
• Strawberries
• Tomatoes
• Watermelon

Produce Safety Training Videos

These videos can be viewed as a set, or individually. First, watch the What Went Wrong video and identify incorrect food safety practices. Then, watch the corresponding What Went Right video and identify the correct practices. Answers can be found in the Video Activity Answer Keys.

What Went Wrong? Video Activity	What Went Right? Video Activity
What Went Wrong? Video Activity Answer Key	What Went Right? Video Activity Answer Key
What Went Wrong? Videos Receiving Produce Storing Produce Preparing Produce 1 Preparing Produce 2 Preparing Produce 3 Serving Produce 1 Serving Produce 2 Serving Produce 3 Serving Produce 4 Disgruntled Employee Food Defense	What Went Right? Videos Receiving Produce Storing Produce Preparing Produce 1 Preparing Produce 2 Preparing Produce 3 Serving Produce 1 Serving Produce 2 Serving Produce 3 Serving Produce 4

Produce Safety Hack Video Series

Available in both English and Spanish, Produce Safety Hack videos are short and designed to help food service operators keep produce safe and at a high quality. They cover a range of topics.

• Ethylene Gas (en Español)
• Ready to Eat (en Español)
• Storage Temperatures (en Español)
• Temperature Readings (en Español)
• Washing Produce (en Español)

Additional Produce Safety Training Videos

For more produce safety training videos visit https://theicn.org/icn-resources-a-z/produce-safety and check out “The Produce Lab Videos” featuring Chef Cyndie and Tom Schwartz discussing some of the culinary techniques, good agricultural practices, and quality and condition skills taught at Produce Safety University.

The institutions linked below offer further information on topics in produce safety. The content of these links is not endorsed by USDA or its affiliates.

• Cornell University National Good Agricultural Practices Program
• Iowa State Cooperative Extension
• UC Davis Post-Harvest Technology Resources
• UC Davis Good Agricultural Practices Resources
• Agricultural Marketing Service GAPs/GHPs Resources

Additionally, the Produce Safety University Summer Series (2021) offers four webinars that highlight the most popular PSU topics including, Market News, Specifications, GAPs and Fresh Cut, and the Produce Lab. The webinars are available at https://theicn.org/psu/psu-summer-series.