The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) ?has funded 14 new research projects, valued at just over $3.3 million, to help answer industry's most urgent produce food safety questions. The 14 funded projects address pressing industry science needs by supply chain sector, including evaluating the role of dust in transferring foodboorne pathogens, inactivation of Cyclospora, and answer critical knowledge gaps regarding the survival of infectious virus in surface water. "CPS's work continues through the COVID-19 pandemic because all of us in the fresh produce industry can never take our eyes off of our shared responsibility to enhance produce safety," said Vic Smith, chair of CPS's volunteer Board of Directors and CEO of grower-shipper J.V. Smith Companies. "We appreciate our research community's commitment to
The?Center for Produce Safety (CPS) ?has funded 14 new research projects, valued at just over $3.3 million, to help answer industry's most urgent produce food safety questions. The 14 funded projects address pressing industry science needs by supply chain sector, including evaluating the role of dust in transferring foodboorne pathogens, inactivation of Cyclospora, and answer critical knowledge gaps regarding the survival of infectious virus in surface water.? "CPS's work continues through the COVID-19 pandemic because all of us in the fresh produce industry can never take our eyes off of our shared responsibility to enhance produce safety," said Vic Smith, chair of CPS's volunteer Board of Directors and CEO of grower-shipper J.V. Smith Companies (picture). "We appreciate our research community's commitment to helping CPS achieve its mission to fund science, find solutions and fuel produce safety change across the supply chain." All projects will begin in January 2021.?Findings will be reported to industry by researchers at CPS's annual Research Symposium, and via CPS through other knowledge transfer activities including CPS's website. Scott Lenaghan, Ph.D., of the University of Tennessee is a first-time award recipient for his project,?"Determination of physical and chemical mechanisms to prevent?Cyclospora?infection."? "Given the increase in?Cyclospora?outbreaks, coupled with CPS's work demonstrating the prevalence of this pathogen in our domestic water supply, to enhance produce safety it is now time to focus on effective means to inactivate?Cyclospora,"?said Lenaghan."We will evaluate use of state-of-the-art robotics and image processing to automate screening to validate that?Cyclospora?has been inactivated, removing the current barrier of laborious manual analysis. The outcome of the project will be valuable guidance to industry on a well-characterized method for inactivating?Cyclospora." Luxin Wang, Ph.D., University of California-Davis, received a first-time award for her proposal,?"Waxing of whole produce and its involvement in and impact on microbial food safety."?? "Limited information is available about the impact of waxing on the microbial food safety of fresh produce," Wang said. "We will investigate the survival of common foodborne pathogens,?Salmonella?and?Listeria monocytogenes, in waxes, and?evaluate the microbiological impact of applying and heat drying waxes. Our goal is to provide data the fresh produce industry needs to conduct risk assessments of their waxing steps." CPS research awards are made possible by funds provided by the Center for Produce Safety's?Campaign Contributors,?the Specialty Crop Block Grant programs in?California Department of Food and Agriculture,?Washington State Department of Agriculture,?Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, and?Texas Department of Agriculture. ? 2020 RFP grant recipientsFollow the 2020 RFP grant recipients; all projects will begin January 2021 Ana Allende, Ph.D., Centro de Edafologia y Biologia Aplicada del Segura (CEBAS) - CSICIdentification of quantitative and qualitative patterns of environmental contamination by?Listeria?spp. and?L. monocytogenes?in fresh produce processing facilities and evaluation of practical control measures able to eliminate transient and persistent contamination Kelly Bright, Ph.D., University of ArizonaWhen the?E. coli?hits the fan! Evaluating the risks of dust-associated produce cross-contamination Jinru Chen, Ph.D., University of GeorgiaOvercome critical food safety challenges of blueberry harvesting Francisco Diez-Gonzalez, Ph.D., University of GeorgiaControl of?Listeria monocytogenes?in processing/packing plants using antimicrobial blue light (aBL) Malak Esseili, Ph.D., University of Georgia? ?Survival of infectious human norovirus in water and on leafy greens? ?? Scott Lenaghan, Ph.D., University of Tennessee?Determination of physical and chemical mechanisms to prevent?Cyclospora?infection Kevin Mis Solval, Ph.D., University of GeorgiaUsing low-cost smartphone-based infrared cameras to evaluate cooling and storage conditions of fresh produce Nitin Nitin, Ph.D., University of California, DavisBio-based antimicrobial coatings for reducing risk of cross-contamination during harvesting Nikki Shariat, Ph.D., University of GeorgiaUnderstanding and predicting food safety risks posed by wild birds Matthew Stasiewicz, Ph.D., University of Illinois?Digital farm-to-facility food safety testing optimization? ?? Abhinav Upadhyay, Ph.D., University of ConnecticutApplication of ultra-fine bubble technology to reduce?Listeria monocytogenes?contamination of fresh produce Mohit Verma, Ph.D., Purdue UniversityField evaluation of microfluidic paper-based analytical devices for microbial source tracking Luxin Wang, Ph.D., University of California, DavisWaxing of whole produce and its involvement in and impact on microbial food safety Meijun Zhu, Ph.D., Washington State UniversityValidation of sanitizer disinfection of wash water in dump tank operation of apple packing lines ? All annual research awards can be found on the?Funded Research?Projects?page on the CPS website