Food Safety Modernization Act: Training Requirements

Food safety training is a key component in any food safety program, as such the produce safety rule has a series of requirements when it comes to the training of personnel working in a farm. The rule requires that all personnel who handle produce or food contact surfaces and their supervisors must have a combination of education, training, and experience necessary to perform their assigned duties.

Training must be done upon hiring a new employee, and continued to be done periodically after that, at least once annually. Training must be conducted in a manner that is easily understood by the personnel being trained. 

Keep in mind that training requirements also applies for any temporary, part time, seasonal, and contracted personnel, and must be repeated as necessary and appropriate whenever there is a sign that personnel are not meeting the standards established by the rule.

At a minimum, all personnel who handle produce or supervises said personnel must receive training that includes all of the following:  

• Principles of food hygiene and food safety.
• The importance of health and personal hygiene for all personnel and visitors, including recognizing symptoms of an illness reasonably likely to result in contamination with microorganisms of public health significance.
• The standards established by the produce safety rule that are applicable to the employee's job responsibilities.

In addition, all personnel that performs harvest activities must also receive training that includes the following:

• Recognizing produce that must not be harvested, including produce that may have become contaminated.
• Inspecting harvest containers and equipment to ensure that they are clean, maintained, and functioning properly so as not to become a source of contamination.
• Correcting problems with harvest containers or equipment or reporting such problems to their supervisor in accordance with their job responsibilities.

At least one supervisor or responsible party for your farm must have successfully completed food safety training at least equivalent to that received under the standardized curriculum recognized as adequate by the Food and Drug Administration. Taking the Produce Safety Alliance Growers Training satisfies this requirement. 

To comply with these requirements, you must assign or identify personnel to supervise or otherwise be responsible for your operations. Lastly, the produce safety rule requires that you establish and keep training records that document personnel training sessions, including the date of training, the topics covered, and the people who were trained. 

For more information, please visit the Penn State Extension FSMA section.

This program was developed by Food Safety CTS, LLC, for Penn State Extension. Supported by a USDA NIFA Food Safety Outreach Program grant titled "Bilingual Produce Safety Educational Programming for Hispanic/Latino Fresh Produce Growers and Farmworkers in Pennsylvania," USDA NIFA Award number 2017-70020-27236