2024-2025 Produce Safety Grower Training Course

Jan. 9, 2025
Via ZOOM
9 a.m.-5 p.m. ET

The Michigan On-Farm Produce Safety team will host a series of Remote Delivery Produce Safety Grower Training courses via Zoom. Anyone interested in learning about Good Agricultural Practices (GAP's), produce safety, co-management, and the FSMA Produce Safety Rule is invited to participate. If you are a grower and your farm is, or will be, "covered" by the Produce Safety Rule, this course will fulfill the training requirement outlined in Section 122.22(c) of the Produce Safety Rule which requires that at least one supervisor or responsible party from the farm must complete a farm food safety training equivalent to the standardized curriculum recognized by the FDA.

The course schedule (full day training) is as follows:

• 9 a.m. ET         Orientation and Paperwork (please arrive at least 15 minutes early)
• 12 p.m. ET       Lunch break
• 12:30 p.m. ET  Training resumes
• 4:30 p.m. ET    Evaluation, certificate application
• 5 p.m. ET         Course concludes

The following required modules will be included:

• Introduction to Produce Safety
• Worker Health, Hygiene, and Training
• Soil Amendments
• Wildlife, Domestic Animals, and Land Use
• Agricultural Water
• Postharvest Handling and Sanitation
• How to Develop a Farm Food Safety Plan

Course Registration: Course materials will be mailed directly to participants. Pre-registration is required a minimum of three weeks prior to the course (this provides time for shipping of course materials.) On training day, all participants are required to have a printed PSA Training Manual with them. Your manual will be mailed directly to the address you provide during registration. We recommend you provide your home address to ensure your manual can be delivered by UPS and received by you. They will not deliver to PO Boxes.  If the course manual is returned (deemed undeliverable) or lost after delivery, participants will be responsible for the cost of a replacement manual as well as shipping costs.  

Cancellation is free before the registration deadline if requested in writing at bordenhe@msu.edu. Participants will be assessed the full course fee if registration is canceled after course training materials are mailed out. 

** Please also note that because this course is not provided “in person,” a course monitor has been appointed to verify participant attendance via video for this entire course. Please plan to participate on a device that has a functioning camera (that will remain turned on) as this is how your attendance will be verified. Per the requirements of the Produce Safety Alliance, course participants are only eligible to receive the PSA/AFDO Certificate of Course Completion if their presence during all of the training modules can be confirmed. The certificate of course completion will be issued approximately two weeks after successful completion of the course. 

The fee for this course is $100 for Michigan Residents and $170 for participants who live outside of Michigan in the US or Canada.  We are unable to ship the required training manual outside of the US or Canada. Please contact Heather at bordenhe@msu.edu with questions.  

The fees for this course cover all, or a portion of the costs associated with this training. Additional funding for this program was made possible, in part, by the Food and Drug Administration through grant PAR-16-137. The views expressed in the presentation do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does any mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government.