 Well thank you all for being here today and sorry for being jumping in the meeting right now, I have been in the field since early morning, but last talk a little bit about food safety and water quality for blueberries specifically and in I would say in general for fruits and vegetables and the standards and regulations are fall within the same recommendation but why it is important to focus on water you know why we need to talk about water that is used for production during harvesting and during post harvest. Water is the major contributor to fresh produce contamination and many other previous outbreaks that were linked to fresh produce contamination the source was water that was used in the field so a lot of times surface water that is being used to irrigate or for any other activity in the field it has been associated with big outbreaks that happened in the past and not only outbreaks but also recalls so when you hear about some fresh produce recall and that is they identified probably some issues on the farm they tested the water they tested they done some environmental testing and they found that eventually the water or something I was contaminated so before something people start getting sick they recall the product so and then many times water work was associated and was the biggest issue and as I've been saying contamination from human and animal species are the most common sources of contamination in the water the biggest problem in the right hand picture you can see that this is an irrigation pond that there is a family living nearby the pond and most of the time we found levels of E. coli pretty high after rainfall events which you know it could be related to you know human waste being dumped or runoff coming to the water and then the other side you see like if you have a pond full of cows you don't use that to irrigate fresh produce right because they they're definitely a big issue especially with E. coli when you have livestock or poultry related to salmonella to you so it is a big issue and we know sometimes it's hard to control animals but we we tell growers keep in mind that fruits and vegetables are ready to eat food you know and they're mostly not cooked in this case you're talking about blueberries this week and you all eat raw blueberries you know you don't as you do a blueberry cobbler pie or you know jams and jellies most of the times you eat raw so we need to pay attention when you're talking about water that using for production and and according to the fisma produce safe to rule which is the prevailing FDA regulation for foods and vegetables agriculture water in general must be safe and adequate sanitary quality for its intended use so this is a general concept so before you go in towards the you know dip and the regulation and 30 buyers requirement and then certification companies water must be safe and water must be sanitary quality when you're using in fresh produce produce production and and what kind of water when we talk about agriculture water what water is qualified to be called agriculture water according to the regulation it's water that is intended or is likely to contact the edible portion of the produce or food contact surfaces they would directly come in contact with produce so we are talking about overhead or sprinkler irrigation it would definitely be considered agriculture water because you're over you're spraying directly water into the produce when you're talking about blueberries but when you're talking about drip irrigation or even under plastic irrigation if you're using plastic then you have to evaluate the risks you know it is not directly contacting the edible portion of the crop is not contacting the the fruits that are on the bushes but you have to think about how often do you have problems with your system do you have you know the drip tape often breaking or you know you have sometimes robins eating on them and they're splashing over there so if you if you feel if you can confidently say no this water never touched the harvestable portion of the crop will never touch the fruit so it's not agriculture water and then you you don't have to follow the produce safety requirements or even you know requirements for that is covered under the regulation so because it's not agriculture water is not touching the fruits but we are talking about irrigation water right uh we are talking about drip irrigation if you think about it uh it is safe you know it is compared to overhead irrigation it's the safest method of water application but agriculture water water is not only used for irrigation think about water that he used for frost protection think about the water they use for fertilization or think think about the water they use for cleaning is sanitizing harvest beans or facility or equipment water that is used for hand washing or workers hand washing and then they whenever they're in the field sometimes they have to wash their hands and they sometimes they have to use the bathroom so all this water that is used in the during production during harvesting or during post harvest they are considered they are called agriculture water because they're touching or likely touch the harvestable portion of the crop or food contact surface which are harvest bean harvest equipment uh post harvest equipment as well so workers hand so all of this are food contact surfaces or we're using water for for irrigation for not only for irrigation but for frost protection for irrigation and so on so you don't think about only water that is used for irrigation that is on the drip drip tape and it's it's safe you don't have to worry about the water quality if you are using the same water uh let's say from the pond from the creek and to irrigate but you're also using for irrigation uh frost protection or washing your beans or even a well water you have to follow some the recommendations or the requirements for the water quality that you're using in this case and I've been talking about a lot about water sources you know if you're using creek or if you're using wells and they the term is your risk so we have surface water which is our higher risk uh because it's open to the environment it's it's hard to control what is in and out running runoff during heavy periods or rain and animals sometimes they come in and whoever whatever else that comes in the water that contaminate the water so it is open to the environment it's hard to control the quality of the water and well water well water is between high and low and it's medium level uh risk uh because if you have a well maintained groundwater well you well uh you'll not likely have problems but sometimes you you do everything you you possibly can do and you still uh you have problems in the water table you have problems on the on your water itself that it's in the area so also you have to think about all those things and municipal water is the safest source you know it's treated water is the it falls within the drinking water standards so it is considered the safest but if you have a big area if you're producing a lot think about it's it's very expensive to use municipal water so a lot of growers they're following to the groundwater surface water and yes for production they can all the three sources water sources can't be used for harvesting and post harvest only groundwater and municipal water can be used because of the high risk of surface water and if you think about and farm environment especially here in alabama we have a lot of uh diversified farms we have poultry operations we have wild animals we have you know livestock or wild animals well sometimes you grow row crops and you grow produce and you you water you use water that is from a creek that comes up on the hill so you have a complex system and it's hard to control everything so if you're using surface water of course it is the higher risk resource but i mean it doesn't mean that you cannot use it but it needs to pay more attention and then be monitoring the quality of the water that you're using especially during your growing season and especially doing close to the harvesting point and i've been talking a lot about the produce safety rule you know and the requirements for water so i mentioned at the beginning that the water must be in the in the big umbrella must be safe and and for sanitary quality for adequate use but when you fall into the requirements specific requirements the produce safety rule will establish values and standards that need to be you know necessary to meet the safe water use so when we are talking about pre-harvest water the produce safety rule we started with the geometric mean of a 120 60 f u per per sample and and a standard threshold value of 410 and and there was to build a microbial water quality profile over a period of time two to four years and and then there was there was only requirement i mean for pre-harvest water and then a lot of times you know as i said surface water is hard to control the quality today it could be one thing and tomorrow it could be another thing and then the whole environment plays a role on dictating the safety and the quality of the water so after that the FDA revised the rule and now they come up with the new proposed rule for agricultural water which is for pre-harvest water and for harvest and post-harvest water the standards are different from the pre-harvest so for water that you use during harvesting or you know hand washing or if you need to use water during the harvest or water that if you need to use water during post-harvest i mean for blueberries you normally don't wash blueberries you know it's a dry line but you use water to clean your facility you know so that is the water that needs to have no detectable generic equi that in the bottom the water that you're testing and i'm talking about the regulation you know sometimes you don't follow the regulation but you sell to hosays you sell to places that require certification and gap certification or other kind of certifications when you're talking about that those certifications they normally fall within the regulation now they will normally will ask at least what the regulation is asking and then sometimes a little bit more um so you need to know you know you need to have an understanding and a concept of what the produce safety rule is requiring even if you don't fall within the the rule but it is still selling they still need gap certification or you know food safety certification on your farm and i mentioned that the proposed acting proposed a new act rule and but what is new you know what has changed and they are coming up with a water assessment and it is only for pre-harvest water so there's no chance to harvest and post harvest water requirements or sprouts so it's still the same you need to do the water testing and and everything that it's on the regulation zero generic or polite and so on and so with the new assessment water assessment for pre-harvest water for production water it also requires a new documentation that is these water assessment records and then the new option is that the water assessment is based on on the inspection maintenance and much more of your water source and this new option replaces the testing on the produce safety rule so before I talked about 126 410 and microbial water quality profile that you do you had to do five sampling waters water testing per year and take the average and put a nice spreadsheet so they're replacing all of this to this water assessment so it's water testing is not necessarily requirement right now but it's an option and but keep in mind if you're still gap certification you need gap certified they might still require the water testing because as I said the water regulation portion is proposed is still not finalized and generally this year the FDA reminds produce stakeholders that they are putting enforcement discretion for compliance dates so by now according to the old rule the finalized rule before growers should have been inspected for the water but for now since the new proposed water they are you know they're enforcing discretion over this compliance because it is still proposed they still need to finalize based on the comments it based more on on feedbacks they will receive with the proposed rules and let's go dip a little bit and on what is this water assessment what it what it's what is contained the the new documentation that you have to keep on your front right now so it involves few factors so the first one is the agriculture water system and it's a water system whether you surface water ground water or municipal water so you need to put on your records the location and what kind of water sourcing you're using and what kind of distribution center you're using whether you're using well-fed pond or if you're using you know open pond you know or if you're using just ground water how much the system is protected from other uses systems or from animals you know if you're using surface water do you have a vegetation above a buffer around the the water source that protects from you know cows or chickens or even wild animals coming to the water you know how much water animal activity you have around also you have to grow you need to put on their report adjacent and nearby land use related to animal operations so maybe you don't have animals animals on your livestock and your farm but your your neighbor you know two three miles four miles away they have a big poetry operation you have to put down your records to and then the other factor you have to document agricultural water practices what kind of application method they're using I said overhead application it's it's riskier than and then you're using drip irrigation but depends on the crop that you're using so you have also have to document or kind of copy your growing what kind of commodities you have in the farm and what kind of application method you're using for each one of them and when was the last time that you irrigating prior to harvesting so you have to normally put you know if you irrigate a day before harvesting irrigate a week before harvesting and you have to document that as well and environmental conditions on where and that you grow produce you know oh do you have frequent heavy rains do you do you often have runoff you're using surface water how much runoff do you see coming into the to the water source and air temperature you know within the seasons when you're growing produce how much sun exposure have they say that because for us you say how much sun exposure that's weird but think about growers that grow produce in new york you know they have way less sun exposure than we have here in south and which can also help kill pathogens that are in and the surface of produce and soil or even in the water and other relevance factors that could contribute to your reporting you know and that includes water testing water testing in this case is suited to the requirements for an option it is an additional documentation that if you're doing your water assessment and then you were also adding the water testing and then showing that your water is safe based also on your other other inspections and auto documentation you're just adding another thing to your report which is my opinion is very important especially during your growing season it is important to know what is the quality of the water that you're using you know you're not guessing based on your you know assessment and you're not required to do all of this if you can demonstrate using a water testing that is outlined in the produce safe to rule that the water has zero detect for generic of kawaii let's say if you're using municipal water or if you use the groundwater that you constantly test and you haven't you have shown that there is no generic kawaii in that water you don't need to do all this water assessment everything I just talked about or if you're using public water to you know for all the pre-harvest activities irrigation cross protection irrigation and then you have the certificate from the water supply and then you don't have to do anything the water assessment or if you're treating your water you know if you're using groundwater you're treating with chlorine or any other chemical that is in accordance with the produce safe to rule you have to use EPA sanitizer but you have to keep in mind if you're using water treatment it's not like you're shocking a water and that's it now it has a method of validation verification and monitoring of treatment it's not a simple way of coming there you found microbial microbes in the water you tested for E. coli it was high and then you treat your water it's not just coming out and shocking the water it is it's a more detailed and then complicated process but if you can't do that then you don't you don't have to do the water assessment if you're not doing any of this three then you you were required to do the water assessment if you fall under the produce safe to rule but still keep in mind the rule is being proposed is not finalized yet so things can change when it's finalized and for post harvest water it remains the same keep in mind all of this water assessment it changes then in the proposed water nothing has changed for post harvest water so according to the produce safe to rule you have to do water testing for groundwater and then the water must become with no detect with generic E. coli for testing and that contacts the edible portion of the crop or if you're using the water for cleaning and sanitizing tools equipment and in Europe not likely to use water during production you know during processing sorting and packing for your for your line but if you have clean out clean out place packing line that you can disassemble equipment and take it out to wash and dry and come and put it back then that water must be fallen to these requirements if you're having a gap certification you also need to do the water testing or keep documentation for municipal water and in case if you're using water you need to keep records on temperature water or kind of antimicrobial you're using sanitizer schedule changes and treatment and and and all monitoring and everything else and with the new proposed rule and the FDA has suggested if you find after your water assessment and you found that you have high risk of having contamination on your water then you they suggest some mitigation strategies that you can do maybe you need to change or repair or application change your application methods or repair your well cap your well head it's been you know too old and you need to do some improvements or change the application method in case if you're doing drip tape that it's fine but if you're doing overhead or sprinkler irrigation or bushes then you might consider shifting to drip tape or if you are using the same water that is high risk for a frost protection maybe you might consider using another source of water for frost protection you know if you even if you if you're considering that the drip tape water is not ag water then you need to use other water to for frost protection or pedigree or you know fertilizer application maybe you need to increase time interval between water application and harvest you know like a minimum of four days to count for die off of microbes so for four days we should have a 99% of microbes dying eventually you know in the out in the environment with the heat with some explosion and everything and if you continue having problems and you can do water treatment you know and there are a lot of people that can help you if you want to introduce a water treatment to your system whether chlorine or UV or PA or any other kind of treatment system we can reach out to one of our extension people we have people around that can help you on implementing on and putting up a water treatment for you and in any other alternative that you find that's valuable and it is a scientific based it needs to be scientifically based so you can apply any other method that you were you know you come up with and say well I found something that it's that can help me mitigate risks and don't forget records you know and records all of your water testing that you're doing even though they're not for production water they're not required anymore then if you do keep on the records and if you're doing any water treatment or monitoring keep them on records and now with the new water ag water rule then you might you have to keep the water assessment on the records you this assessment document and any corrective action or mitigation strategies that you have planned or if you had any issues that you have to take corrective actions keep all documented on on the farm and then last slide I just want to talk a little bit of program that we just we launched this year and with all the things that is happening with agriculture water with all the change that means that's been happening we understand the growers will face difficulties you know adapting to the new requirements and then sometimes growers find difficulties finding labs that they can send water for testing so we have this program that is called ag water safety program that is aligned with the current produce safety ag rule proposed rule that we our major focus is product provide educational support to all growers that they can navigate through these new requirements and also we are offering free micro water testing so if you're interesting on participating on this program you can assess this link that we have here or you can use your cell phone camera and scan the keyword code and click on the link that we generate on your camera it would take you to a screening survey there you can provide some basic information you know if you're using water if you have produce on your on your farm and then you leave your contact information and it will reach out to you to provide more information and to send the cooler with the bottles and then all everything that you need to do to collect your water and send back to us so we can do the water analysis for you and it is free you don't pay for shipping we pay for all of this and you get a lot of benefits because we get to help you to understand all of the new requirements and then we provide the major the reason is to provide education to help you on your farm as well and I'm open for questions and I hope you guys enjoy and I haven't talked too fast