11/24/2008
The Center for Produce Safety hopes that $500,000 in new research will help the produce industry gain a better understanding of ways to prevent contamination during production.

The California-based center was launched in response to the 2006 E. coli outbreak and funded with $2 million from the Produce Marketing Association and another $2 million from Taylor Farms. The California Department of Food & Agriculture and the University of California also pledged financial resources for the center, which is housed at the University of California-Davis.

Over the last year, a Technical Committee polled various commodity groups representing leafy greens, tomatoes, melons and tree crops to rank their top research needs. The committee spent months culling research proposals for the best funding candidates.

"I am immensely proud of the speed in which the dedicated industry, government and academic volunteers that make up the Technical Committee were able to develop and award the research funds," said Tim York of Salinas, CA-based Markon Cooperative, who is chairman of the center's advisory board. "We committed to setting a new standard in creating timely research to produce data that could be quickly translated into production practices, and the Technical Committee has helped us deliver on that commitment."

The center announced the following grants on Nov. 14:

-- A Sensitive and Specific Molecular Testing Method for Live Salmonella in Produce awarded to Beilei Ge of Louisiana State University.

-- Enhancing the Effectiveness of Human Pathogen Testing Systems for the Advancement of Practical Produce Safety Research and Commercial Management, awarded to Carol D'lima of the University of California-Davis.

-- Environmental Effects on the Growth or Survival of Stress-adapted Escherichia coli 015:H7 and Salmonella saintpaul in Compost, awarded to Xiuping Jiang of Clemson University.

-- Examination of the Survival and Internalization of E. coli on Spinach under Field Production Environments, awarded to Steven T. Koike of the University of California Cooperative Extension.

"These awards represent a critical first step in achieving CPS's mission of funding new scientific studies to provide the industry with the information it needs to continually enhance food-safety measures," Bob Whitaker, chief science officer for PMA and chairman of the Technical Committee that granted the awards, said in a statement.

The results from the four top research projects are expected by Dec. 31, 2009. The center said that it would issue three requests for additional proposals within the next 30 days, including a joint proposal with the United States-Israel Agricultural Research and Development Fund, and the California Leafy Greens Research Program.