Thanks to a federal grant, Lincoln University's Cooperative Extension and Research (LUCER) will work with Iowa State University to establish the North Central Regional Center for Food Safety Training.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) awarded Iowa State in Ames a three-year, $950,000 grant to establish the center, with LU and other collaborators sharing in the grant.
The objectives are to educate farmers and processors on the FDA's new food safety regulations and help them comply with the new rules by the federal agency's due dates.
The center will provide guidance to food processors and growers in Missouri and 11 other Midwestern states.
Touria Eaton, Ph.D. - a LUCER researcher, state Extension specialist for horticulture and co-principal investigator of the project - will be implementing the North Central Regional Center's objectives in Missouri.
Iowa State's Angela Shaw is the project's principal investigator.
She said food safety has grown as a topic of concern for the American public, and food safety regulations need to be modernized.
Lincoln's Eaton said, in a news release: "Small farmers may not have the resources they need to comply with the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act by the due date set by the FDA."
The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law in 2011, and it aims to strengthen the U.S. food safety system by preventing foodborne outbreaks before they occur.
For example, the produce safety rule - one of seven major rules under FSMA - requires fruit and vegetable growers to meet science-based minimum standards for safe growing, harvesting, packing, and holding of fruits and vegetables grown for human consumption.
Large companies will have to meet a September deadline but likely will be able to devote the resources necessary to make the transition, Eaton noted.
However, she said, smaller firms, farmers and processors likely will need the most help to update under the new rule - even though they will have about four years to be in compliance.
The 2011 law also established a national center and four regional centers - including the North Central Regional Center for Food Safety Training in Iowa - to guide growers and companies that must comply with the law. The center's first step will be reaching out and providing needs assessments to the companies that will have to comply with the new rules.
Iowa State's Shaw said: "This undertaking will be research-based. We'll have a very robust outreach effort to work with the companies and farmers - and we'll also be working with the other regional centers to see what sort of overlap exists."