Evidence for the efficacy of pre-harvest agricultural practices in mitigating food-safety risks to fresh produce in North America
Naresh Devarajan
(1)
,
Daniel Weller
(2)
,
Matthew Jones
(3)
,
Aiko Adell
(4)
,
Achyut Adhikari
(5)
,
Ana Allende
(6)
,
Nicole Arnold
(7)
,
Patrick Baur
(8)
,
Sarah Beno
(9)
,
Donna Clements
(10)
,
Elissa Olimpi
(11)
,
Faith Critzer
(12)
,
Hyatt Green
(13)
,
Lisa Gorski
(14)
,
Angela Ferelli Gruber
(15)
,
Jasna Kovac
(16)
,
Jeffery Mcgarvey
(14)
,
Claire Murphy
(11)
,
Sarah Murphy
(10)
,
Nora Navarro-Gonzalez
(17)
,
Jeb Owen
(18)
,
Alda Pires
(1)
,
Nicole Richard
(8)
,
Sandipan Samaddar
(1)
,
Radomir Schmidt
(1)
,
Kate Scow
(1)
,
Nikki Shariat
(12)
,
Olivia Smith
(19)
,
Austin Spence
(1)
,
Don Stoeckel
(12)
,
Thao Tran
(1)
,
Gretchen Wall
(20)
,
Daniel Karp
(1)
1
UC Davis -
University of California [Davis]
2 URMC - University of Rochester Medical Center
3 Cascade Agroecology
4 UNAB - Universidad Andrés Bello [Santiago]
5 LSU - Louisiana State University
6 CEBAS - CSIC - Centro de Edafologia y Biologia aplicada del Segura
7 OSU - Ohio State University [Columbus]
8 URI - University of Rhode Island
9 Birmingham-Southern College
10 Cornell University [New York]
11 Virginia Tech [Blacksburg]
12 University of Georgia [USA]
13 SUNY-ESF - SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
14 USDA-ARS : Agricultural Research Service
15 TAG The Acheson Group - The Acheson Group
16 Penn State - Pennsylvania State University
17 BIOEPAR - Biologie, Epidémiologie et analyse de risque en Santé Animale
18 WSU - Washington State University
19 Michigan State University [East Lansing]
20 IFPA - International Fresh Produce Association
2 URMC - University of Rochester Medical Center
3 Cascade Agroecology
4 UNAB - Universidad Andrés Bello [Santiago]
5 LSU - Louisiana State University
6 CEBAS - CSIC - Centro de Edafologia y Biologia aplicada del Segura
7 OSU - Ohio State University [Columbus]
8 URI - University of Rhode Island
9 Birmingham-Southern College
10 Cornell University [New York]
11 Virginia Tech [Blacksburg]
12 University of Georgia [USA]
13 SUNY-ESF - SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
14 USDA-ARS : Agricultural Research Service
15 TAG The Acheson Group - The Acheson Group
16 Penn State - Pennsylvania State University
17 BIOEPAR - Biologie, Epidémiologie et analyse de risque en Santé Animale
18 WSU - Washington State University
19 Michigan State University [East Lansing]
20 IFPA - International Fresh Produce Association
Abstract
Consumption of contaminated produce remains a leading cause of foodborne illness. Increasingly, growers are altering agricultural practices and farm environments to manage food-safety hazards, but these changes often result in substantial economic, social, and environmental costs. Here, we present a comprehensive evidence synthesis evaluating the efficacy of soil, non-crop vegetation, animal, landscape, and irrigation water management strategies aimed at reducing produce-safety risk in North America. We systematically summarized findings from 78 peer-reviewed papers on the effect of 21 management practices on the prevalence, abundance, or survival of four foodborne pathogens (i.e., E. coli, Salmonella spp., Listeria spp ., and Campylobacter spp .), resulting in 113 summaries. We then organized a 30-member expert panel, who used these summaries to evaluate the impact of each practice on food-safety outcomes. While more than half of the practices were too understudied to confidently evaluate their impact on food safety, the panel did identify several practices that were associated with reduced preharvest food-safety risks, including not using raw manure, separating crop and livestock production, and choosing low-risk irrigation sources. The panel also identified practices that appear ineffective at reducing food-safety risks, such as the removal of non-crop vegetation. Overall, these findings provide insights into the food-safety impacts of agricultural and land management practices that growers, auditors, and extension personnel can use to co-manage produce preharvest environments for food safety and other aims.
