Fruit and vegetable growers would be required to conduct annual assessments of their water supplies to identify and mitigate threats of contamination for their crops under a rule proposed by the FDA on Thursday. The assessments would replace a requirement that growers conduct tests of water quality.
FDA deputy commissioner Frank Yiannas said the proposed rule was “a monumental step” toward improving the safety of the food supply. “There have been far too many foodborne illness outbreaks possibly linked to pre-harvest agricultural water in recent years, including from lands nearby produce farms,” said Yiannas in a statement.
The proposed rule, to be published in the Federal Register on Monday, calls for produce farms to make an annual assessment of water sources to identify contamination hazards and decide if corrective steps are needed.
Expedited action would be required for hazards related to activities on neighboring land. “This is being included following several recent outbreak investigations on produce that revealed potential routes of contamination, including activities and conditions such as animal grazing and the presence of livestock and wildlife on land adjacent to, or near, produce farms or their water sources,” said the FDA.
Small farms would face “significant and disproportionate costs” under the FDA requirement for a testing regimen for water supplies, said the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. “At its core, this rule continues to place the burden of assessment and mitigation of hazards solely on fruit and vegetable farmers,” said the NSAC. “Problems with agricultural water quality need to be addressed at a societal and systemic level, instead of expecting farm by farm enforcement to correct a problem that originates upstream.”
The FDA said it would “exercise enforcement discretion” with its Produce Safety Rule, which takes effect in January and includes water testing requirements, while “pursuing another proposed rule to extend the compliance dates for all of the agricultural water requirements in the PSR.”
The produce and water safety rules are part of the FDA’s implementation of the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act.