FDA, in collaboration with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the University of California, Davis’s Western Center for Food Safety, and agricultural stakeholders in the Central Coast of California, is conducting a multi-year study in the Central Coast agricultural region to identify environmental factors that significantly contribute to the introduction, persistence, growth, and spread of foodborne pathogens that could contaminate produce during production and harvest. We are also interested in identifying factors that lead to pathogen die-off.

• FDA In Brief: FDA, California Agricultural Stakeholders Launch Multi-Year Study to Enhance Food Safety
• The California longitudinal multi-year study will examine how pathogens survive, move through the environment, and possibly contaminate produce, through work with water quality, food safety, and agricultural experts from CDFA, the Western Center for Food Safety at UC Davis, representatives from various agriculture industries, and members of the leafy greens industry.