 Hello, everyone. My name is Scott Swanson. I am your host today for the field of fork webinar, which is brought to you by North Dakota State University Extension. Anyways, this is our 11th year. We've done the field of fork series. And so we're so glad you joined us today. If you're curious, we have archived all previous years webinars and those are on the field of fork web page. The next slide will show our upcoming webinars. Hope you can join us for these two. And next week will be Andrew Thaustensen. Our extension safety specialist, a pesticide safety specialist about what gardeners should know about pesticides. We have a special request from you. This program is sponsored in part with grant funding from the USDA's agricultural marketing service. So we will ask you to complete a short online survey that will be emailed right after today's webinar. And as a thank you, Julie will provide prizes to the lucky winners of the random drawings. So be sure to put in your complete address on the follow up form, including your city, state and zip code. So again, welcome to today's webinar. I'm pleased to introduce today's speaker. Shannon Coleman is an associate professor and state extension specialist in food safety and consumer production at Iowa State University. Coleman's extension and outreach work includes developing and disseminating food safety curricula and resources for Iowa's emerging very small and small food manufacturers. Her research uses various evaluation theories to evaluate food manufacturers, attitudes, intentions and behaviors toward following food safety practices. In addition, Coleman has expanded her outreach and research to fill gaps in improving food safety and the local food system from farm to table, including developing developing curriculum and resources for youth, adults and gardeners. In today's presentation, Shannon will present on produce safety practices that gardeners should follow from home to the market. So Shannon, take it away. All right, we see people from all over North Dakota, Kansas, South Dakota, Wisconsin. So welcome everybody. So learning objectives for today. They are that we will number one identify food safety risks that could lead to cross contamination in the garden. The next is illustrate when you should wash your hands. And then the third one is demonstrate food safety risk and corrective actions through a scenario activity. So there will be an interactive portion to the presentation today. Although this image looks probably a little funny. This is not all funding gains when it comes to food war and outbreaks food war and outbreaks have increased overall with 46% about breaks from 1998 to 2008 being attributed to fresh produce and nuts. This image here shows for from the water quality and health council that shows that there was 29 recalls in the United States from 1985 to 2017. The highest recall report were for fruit vegetables and nut products accounting for 11 of those, which translates to about 30 38% of recalls. As far as you being a gardener. I know in the state of Iowa, people who grow fresh produce in their home gardens and take them to the farmers market and so that's why we try to focus even for small growers and gardeners when we talk about doing food safety practices in the garden. And so, in the state of Iowa, we have the program growing together Iowa, and it is a food security program where we have our master gardeners growing fresh produce that would go to the donation gardens. And it may be about year two or three of that program. I was asked to develop a poster, which turned into a sign that is can put it be put into the garden to remind the gardeners to follow safe practices and so I don't I don't have that one in my script but I work on getting it in my script or at least on providing it to Julie and her intern. But if you wanted to use this is a found available on our issue extension store. And so in the next few slides, I will be explaining a bit about the science and the produce safety practices behind these areas that we highlighted here in this poster. So first starting with produce concern of animals. Due to the proximity of humans, wildlife domestic animals. They are very likely to harbor those who born pathogens that could be a risk to your garden. And when you are thinking about doing a risk assessment of your garden, you want to make sure you're looking for both domestic and wild animals. Because they carry a lot of those human foodborne pathogens and their feces and they can be spread throughout your garden and your fields. You want to look into ways of limiting their access to your garden, which is essential to ensure that the produce that you want to take to the market does not become contaminated. Water is another thing that comes up a lot when we talk about produce safety. So many pathogens can be introduced to fresh produce through water. And spread. And so they are you need to understand the risk associated with water to kind of understand which is the appropriate water that you should use in your garden itself. Without water, there would not be any fresh produce. So when you're managing your water quality, it is proper to use the critical understanding to reduce the pathogen safety risk when it comes to your fruit and vegetables. So when we talk about water quality is based on the source and there are three common source of water surface ground and municipal water. And so out of these three, we look at the risk. And so higher risk is with those surface water and lower risk is with the municipal water and we would recommend or even yesterday with the with the training we're getting ready to put out for processes to talk about portable water or drinking water. So making sure you use the appropriate water in your gardens and fields. And if you are using some of the other sources of water, going through the process of making sure that they're appropriately tested. Workers with their improper volunteers with their improper hygiene practices. There's water, soil, animal fees, a feces, organic matter, dirt and other ways they can transmit food were pathogens to fresh produce. So it's essential. When you're working in your garden that you follow safe practices such as making sure that your food contact surfaces meet the standards that are appropriate for harvesting, and they know any other activities in the garden and so looking at the, the top of your food contact surfaces you want to make sure that they're non toxic non absorbent durable and can with handle handle corrosion and that they're easily that you can easily clean and sanitize them if you if possible. As a garden you want to make Gardner you want to make sure that you're not transmitting any food born pathogens to your family and friends or if you're taking this to the market to your customers. And so you want to make sure that you have a proper cleaning and sanitizing policy when it comes to your containers and equipments to help reduce the risk of food born pathogens. A lot during this Kobe 19 pandemic handwashing has come up and so it's always a good reminder to remind everybody about handwashing and especially in your gardens. So number one way to reduce risk of any affections bacteria or viruses is through handwashing practices and so listed here are the appropriate steps that are listed by the center of disease control and prevention so we're starting off with wetting your hands with clean and running water and turning off your tap and applying soap. Lather your hands together with the soap and make sure you get between your hands and between your fingers and underneath your nails and you want to scroll for about 20 seconds and you've you want to make your day feel special or even smile at yourself you can sing happy birthday to yourself a couple of times and then you want to rinse your hands with running water and then dry it with a clean paper towel or even air dry them. So, when you're thinking about your gardens especially if you have a community community garden, you want to remind your volunteers and everybody to wash their hands so you can do that with the portable handwashing station. And in the chat I have put some links to some handwashing demographic posters that we have through Iowa State extension and outreach store that are free and available to print. And the one here on this slide is one of them that is in that chat for you. And so the question always comes up as y'all mentioned washing your hands all the time. But when should we actually work wash our hands and so here are some examples here, which includes, you know, after using the restroom facilities before and after eating and even smoking. When I was working on my hydroponic tomatoes project. The horticulture faculty member asked that any one of us smoke because there is a possible transmission of of a disease or something toxic to two tomatoes from actual cigarette so with my lab mate who was a smoker. I had to tell him sometimes you can't come or you want to wear gloves because he was a smoker. And then also as far as washing your hands, it could be anytime that your hands become contaminated. So that's why we recommend that you have like a portable handwashing kit in your actual field that can contain a igloo water container bucket to capture your water some hand soap paper towels and a trash can. So, looking at entries of contamination so when you have bruises punctures damages to your produce. It is possible through those entry of contaminations of the plant tissues, such as the somata that there could be some transmission of these foodborne pathogens and there's a few papers that had looked at that research and when I did my research as a student that was some of the things we were looking at as well. So, you know the popular opinion is that these pathogens will survive but not thrive in an intact or uninjured surface produce. But you want to make sure that you are. You're doing things to make sure that you are not incorporating these damage produce items in your actual items that you want to take to market or even to your local food pantry. So you want to understand that if you see those bruised or drop produce that you want to discard them. So in the title we also talk about transportation so transportation to the market. So there are various sources of transportation when we're talking about taking your fresh produce to the pantry and the market. It is recommended that you adapt your transportation sources to fit the best practices. So number one you want to make sure that you have a clean and covered transportation. My favorite form of transportation for fresh produce could be a large SUV or even a cargo van because they're already covered. And so you don't have to worry about any pests or birds or anybody else dropping anything on top of your produce. However, if you have a truck and you want to put your produce in a truck bed best practices is to use a tarp or cover the bed to make sure that your produce does not become contaminated. And then I think these one of our final things before we go into our activity is thinking about your personal protection. So following appropriate personal hygiene and cleanliness practices in your garden is essential. And so some of those recommended things are list are listed listed here. And they are, you know, make sure that you tie your hair back. Also, especially if it's long. You want to make sure that you're not eating or drinking or even smoking in your garden. So having actual designated area for that with your volunteers and workers being aware if they're sick and ask them do not to come to work when they're sick. So and also being aware of some of those symptoms that are associated with foodborne pathogens such as fever, diarrhea and vomiting. It is also recommended that you do not wear jewelry in the garden so leave your big diamonds or big rings or things like that out. Because those can serve as physical hazards to to your customers. And then lastly, we asked that you wear clean clothing in the garden as dirty clothing can transmit foodborne pathogens. And so this would be a good time to just take a break and also just talk about some of the things that we are doing here in the state of Iowa as it relates to garden safety, as well as some promotion of safe that safe or nutritious eating. In the summer, our food and health specialists from our unit of extension and outreach, deliver an in person training called produce basics. And this program provides participants with that information about learning about preparing produce as well as about safe practices as it relates to fresh produce and gardens. And so participants will learn how to store clean prepare and preserve fresh produce and vegetables. This program includes a lecture interactive activities and food demonstration. And so today, you are lucky. You will get a sneak peek into our produce basics program as one of the interactive activities that is involved with that program is also a part of this series here we have produce safety in the garden, which is a series of interactive activities that can be used as a form of training with workers volunteers in your in your operation or in your gardens. And so you'll specifically be interacting with the food safety scenario activity which starts on page four. In the in the guide itself we have facilitator guys and workbook and worksheets that can be used for these activities. And so going through our instructions. So we're in this is where I'm glad that Scott was able to enable the chat. So we for the instructions in the chat for each scene, you will list any food safety risk and a corrective action for the scene. So when we're saying food safety risk it is similar to food safety hazards. And so those are agents that will cause potential adverse health reactions to our customers. And so corrective actions are taken to eliminate those food safety risks so you'll want to put both in the chat. And so we're for this activity, there are six scenes but today you'll only interact with three. So I'll give some time for you to respond to each scene and I'll even call you out in the chat or give you kudos in the chat as you're putting in your responses and then we'll go through each scene and kind of discuss the risk and the corrective action. So all right, we're about to get ready. So we are starting off at scene one. So at 830 am jam the garden manager usually works alone and comes to work with visible dirt and stains on his clothing. So in the chat, I want you to put in some responses of the food safety risk and the corrective action for this scene. So RK put in a risk and the action and the corrective action and seeing variety of things I'm seeing clothing I'm seeing tools. And actually I see some other things highlighted and we'll talk about that in the when we look at the actual responses. Y'all are doing a good job in the chat. All right, so I'm going to wrap it up and we're going to put up we're going to show the responses. Food safety risk. The ones they're outlined here on the slide. What I love about this activity and that's why I'm kind of paying close attention to the chat because usually when I do this people point out a lot of a lot of different things that we don't see. Usually, and so what I saw in the chat and some of the responses with the correct responses is the dirty clothing. Somebody said one time when I did an open toe shoes because they couldn't really tell they look kind of but they can tell. And then, and what I saw today which I'm going to add to this discussion is everybody talked about how the shoes are also dirty. But in my work with the master gardeners, when we did a focus group, they say we are dirty, we are dirty people. So we work in dirt. So I think the biggest thing is just making sure that you are aware of your dirty clothing and tools and just, you know, being cautious and making sure that you're not spreading anything in your garden itself. So correct, corrective actions can be clean clothing, close toe shoes, cleaning off your shovel after use, just making sure if any of that backup dirt, backed up dirt that is stuck on the shovel, not spreading anything. All right, good job. So we're going to move to the next one we're moving to scene three. So at 915 a.m. while harvesting, Jim noticed numerous animal droppings on and around the produce garden. So in the chat, we're going to identify the food safety risk and corrective action. Keep the animals out. I see the animal job droppings. I see fences. I'm actually over here taking notes because I want to make sure we identify these things in the future when I do these activities. So we're going to move on to look at the responses and see how well I'm matching up with your response and I see a lot of cleaning it up. So animal droppings is the risk. And so I see a lot of people saying clean it up. The hard part with cleaning up the the feces is there could be a possible. You could also spread it when you're trying to clean it. And so one of the recommendations or best practices is to do is to segregate that area and just identify it as a no harvest zone. And so you kind of figure out your best standard of how to handle the feces in your space as far as corrective actions. So I'm a I see fences and other things. So yes, I forgot to put those in. I'm gonna put that in next time I offer it. And so now we're going to move on to our final scene. And this is scene five. So at 945 am Jim could not locate his harvest containers right away. So he placed the harvest produce directly on the ground. So in the chat. Let's help less identify your food safety risk and your corrective actions. I see that the wood cannot be sanitized soil contamination, no ground. Use sanitize containers do not harvest until proper container. Yep. Love these recommendations soil contamination dirt on the ground. Use a clean tart. Yep. Let's look at the responses. So container on the ground, wooden containers. And when you look at the actual scenario is talking about the produce being directly on the ground and yes soils can be a source of contamination for fresh produce and so someone recommended you know do not harvest you have your container. So I also would suggest that another thing is they see the container that is directly on the ground. There's a recommendation of best practices is to stack the container. So having one that you know will get that remain dirty because that is the one that you're going to use to stack your other containers on top of it. And then there are some places where they just have those wooden containers. I may know a farm very close to me that does that and so a recommendation of adding some type of plastic liner to it to make sure that you're using that as a barrier to the wooden containers because that wooden container could splinter and then cause a cause a physical hazards to the product to the fresh produce. And so congratulations. Thank y'all for interacting with me with this activity. I found out I wanted I developed this to do it in person with with growers and our master gardeners got very mad at Jim. When we did it and I told them they cannot be mean to Jim because Jim is a volunteer and you should be nice to him. We had to work on ways of how you can better communicate to Jim on what you need to do. So as I stated before, so this activity, along with two others so we have the food safety scenario. We have another one that talks about cross contamination that is like a storyboard or activity that you can interact and have volunteers. And then we also have one that's on food safety toolkit. And so this could be something, especially if you're running a community donation garden of an actual interactive activities that you can use to interact with their workers and volunteers to educate them on safe practices. And it's available on our extension store. All right, so going back over our learning objectives. We first identify risk that could lead to cross contamination in the garden. And next we illustrate when you should wash your hands and then we demonstrated food safety risk and correction actions through scenario activities and so I want to thank you all for being a good sports and interacting with the activity. And so this is the end of my presentation. And you can contact me at the information on the slides. And now I will take any questions. Well, thank you, Shannon here it looks like Scott had to leave here I think he got a ride since it's been blizzardy up here in Fargo North Dakota I think he was able to try to get back to Fargo here but I'll do my best to look at the chat and kind of read the questions for you. Okay, and I see one right away is what is the best way to sanitize harvest containers. You want to make sure that you're first cleaning them. So cleaning them meaning taking away that are using soap and water to get rid of the organic matter first. And then as far as sanitizers. I can look for a guide that we have for gardeners that kind of recommends specific sanitizers but whatever you want to use a food gray sanitizer, and you want to follow the instructions that is on the label of that actual sanitizer so depending on what type of sanitizers use, then you want to follow that instructions. So vinegar Becky put in the chat about vinegar so vinegar would probably be more than a set will serve a role as a sanitizer then actually a cleaner so you do want to do some form of cleaning with the actual soap. So finding a good soap alternative for yourself for cleaning and then looking for an appropriate sanitizer and they could be some that are a city gas at base that you might like that'll be appropriate for your sanitizing. And then Mary put in the chat. If a bird picture tomatoes should it be thrown away. Yes. So birds are transmitters of the foodborne pathogen Salmonella, the certain birds. We've done some work and during my doctoral program we did some work on some birds that even flew over feed lots and we saw many of foodborne pathogens from the actual feces so I imagine what can come from their beaks itself but yeah if they are pecking at your tomatoes you want to throw those tomatoes that they pick that away. And then Janice put in the chat bleach with water that is more of a sanitizer and then so you'll use that as your actual sanitizer but you want to make sure that you're doing it at the appropriate level as far as whatever concentration you want to do it at I know normally and especially with our scientific research. We do a 10% bleach solution. Becky here said that never thought of using a tart to gather produce but also that plastic buckets would work nice to for putting produce and so. Yeah, and there are some people like I said the farm that we visited had those wooden containers so use it and I think with the size there there. Wooden containers was similar to the one we saw in Jim's photo and so I for our video that we developed I put like a turkey bag the one that you put the. You use that Thanksgiving and that was a good big enough liner to fill up that container and display to collect produce. Any other questions. So, when you find poop is you, I guess you develop your risk or look at your risk. We, with our produce safety Alliance training that we do for the food safety modernization act. It says that is best practices to recommend that you block off that area and you decide you know how far you want to go with that area and kind of segregate that and say that this will be your no harvest zone. There are people who actually have smaller shovels that will scoop it out but you just want to make sure you have everything ready to properly dispose of it right then and there. The only thing there is that if you do not handle it well and drop it that only makes it worse so I think that's why. Even with our trainings we do the no harvest on feel mice and that the thing I'm learning about mice and I'm from Alabama so we don't even call them mice people laugh at us because I call everything a rat. I've heard of people putting up fences or even double up this fences to try to keep past out of there but I know that they find ways to dig in. I will just also you know reaching out to your local extension and outreach to ask them a ways to mitigate them in your field they there are experts in those areas that could give you more suggestions on that. But for feel mice are passed out there you know looking for the proper way of deterrent and I've heard of people doubling up fences. Using. And not for mice but using for some certain animals using the actual plastic animal to deter them from there. That's natural way so that's a question about how to keep natural ways of keeping passed out that's why I think in the couple of weeks of a horticulture is to be here so. I'm reaching out you know asking some of those questions then just finding the appropriate way to deter them is the best way natural way. I've I've heard like I say people using the plastic animals to deter them from there. And someone either at our heart station, our manager there has a gun that deters past I wouldn't go outside when you shoot it because I scare easily. So we have a pest management video that we offer different suggestions and that is one of them using flare gun to deter past any other questions. We had someone that grandpa Gus mouse repellent works well for them for mice and go first I don't know if you know anything about that. No, I told you how me and rats get along. I don't know if I like them much either I guess no. From the from the questions everybody else does not like them either. We want to thank everybody again for joining us. And as Scott said at the beginning of the meeting we have. Julie has a whole list of people that are going to come and speak with you all about different areas related to your topics and she said gardeners and home food preservation and all are the different topics that are going on. So thank you all for joining us. And thank you so much for presenting on this is very interesting to learn about how to keep produce a lot safer and cleaner. All right everybody have a great afternoon and thank you for the well wishes in the chat.