The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is a federal law transforming the nation’s food safety system. The “Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption”, aka “Produce Safety Rule (PSR),” establishes for the first time, science-based minimum standards for the safe growing, harvesting, packing, and holding of fruits and vegetables grown for human consumption. The FSMA Produce Safety Rule requires at least one supervisor or responsible party from the farm complete a food safety training at least equivalent to that received under standardized curriculum recognized as adequate by FDA conducted by qualified trainers. A Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) Lead Trainer is an individual who has attended the PSA Train-the-Trainer Course and successfully completed the PSA Lead Trainer Supplemental Application and Evaluation. A PSA Lead Trainer can train solo, or as a team, as long as all trainers on the team have attended the PSA Train-the-Trainer Course. The process of becoming a PSA Lead Trainer is intended to ensure PSA Lead Trainers meet the minimum qualifications in each of the four competency areas as well as the educational and teaching background necessary to lead a PSA Grower Training Course.

To be pro-active on food safety and strengthen the local food system by increasing the number of trainers in the state of Kentucky, Dr. Paul Priyesh Vijayakumar the PSA lead trainer for Kentucky organized a PSA Train-the-Trainer course in Frankfort, Kentucky in collaboration with Produce Safety Alliance at Cornell University. The program had 33 participants, including 13 regulators from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) and Food Safety Branch (FSB), 8 Extension personnel from the University of Kentucky, two Extension personnel from Kentucky State University, and one person from the Kentucky Horticulture Council. We also had regulators from Wisconsin and Washington participate in this course. The course fee for participants from University of Kentucky and regulators from KDA and FSB was covered by the FSMA –PSR Southern Center Grant received by the University of Kentucky Food Systems Innovation center, as an ongoing partnership between the entities to form a network to educate the growers on FSMA PSR.

All the participants successfully completed the course to earn the PSA Lead Trainer status. Pre-test data showed 79 percent of the participants scored 70% or above, but the post-test data showed significant increase in knowledge, with 100 percent of the participants scoring 70% or above. Before the training, there were only four PSA trainers in the state. After the training we now have a network of 27 trainers across the state of Kentucky to help and train growers.