Currently, we do not produce produce for sale, but we have dreams of doing so. To that end, I signed up to take the class.
In Alaska, the Office of the State Veterinarian and the Department of Environmental Conservation work with the Food and Drug Administration to manage the sale of food products. We have been selling eggs for quite some time and have been following all the rules. We have looked into the rules for selling meat and think we are complying. Our meat sales have been lifted to a few chickens to friends, which is minimally regulated. Selling fresh produce requires that someone in the business has the certification one gets by taking the official Produce Safety class.
Luckily, I was able to take the class when it was offered for free under a grant program. The instruction was pretty straightforward. The presenters mostly followed the slides and printed material in the manual that was sent to me. It makes sense that they did that. It is a government-produced course and the content has to be uniformly presented wherever people take the class. Unfortunately, that style of presentation tends to be bland. It is almost always the case that the presenters’ personal anecdotes and examples are more interesting than the ready-made material.
The content was what one might expect: dealing with animals in the fields, cleanliness of the facilities, the quality of the water used, disposal of wastes and wastewater, and the cleanliness of the employees.
With luck, Melissa and I will have need of this certification this summer.
