The Western Growers Science team recently released a report that examines how imported fresh produce is regulated relative to domestic production and identifies opportunities to strengthen oversight of foreign suppliers. The analysis highlights structural gaps in inspection frequency, reliance on importer-based controls under the Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) and limited transparency into foreign compliance and enforcement outcomes. As imports continue to account for a growing share of the U.S. produce supply, the findings underscore the need for improved risk-based oversight, stronger verification mechanisms and greater data visibility to better align foreign supplier accountability with domestic food safety expectations. 

Key highlights from the report include: 

• Imported produce has grown substantially over the past three decades and now represents a significant share of U.S. fruit and vegetable availability. 

• FDA’s visibility into foreign suppliers is more limited than for domestic operations, including fewer foreign food safety inspections than domestic inspections.

• Oversight of foreign produce relies heavily on importers through FSVP, with limited publicly available data on program performance or outcomes. 

• Greater transparency around inspections, enforcement actions and compliance histories could support more effective risk assessment and prevention. 

• Continued collaboration across government, industry and international partners is essential to ensure imported produce meets the same safety expectations as domestic products. 

• Opportunities to strengthen foreign supplier oversight include targeted engagement, outreach, improved transparency, deeper analysis of enforcement and sampling approaches and refinement of risk-based oversight. 

To access the full report, click here.

The FDA’s Human Foods Program (HFP) recently released its 2026 Priority Deliverables, outlining a broad set of activities focused on food safety, nutrition, prevention and public health. The priorities span a wide range of topics, including contaminants in food, microplastics, the Closer to Zero initiative and other emerging scientific and regulatory issues. For the fresh produce industry, these priorities highlight opportunities to support healthy diets and maintain an abundant and safe food supply; they also underscore the value of continued public-private collaboration to advance this work. 

Western Growers has been advancing work across multiple fronts, with a focus on three priority areas for the fresh produce industry: oversight of imported produce, fresh and processed produce safety and food traceability. 

Oversight and Safety of Imported Food 

This priority area focuses on strengthening oversight and safety of imported foods, including fresh produce, through risk-based approaches, improved data use and cross-border collaboration. Recently, Western Growers released a report examining oversight of imported fresh produce, highlighting challenges and opportunities to enhance transparency, consistency and risk-based oversight. Click here for more information on the report’s findings and recommendations.

Fresh and Processed Produce Safety 

FDA plans to advance multiple produce-focused safety initiatives, including expanded grower training, updated guidance for sprout producers, targeted research, commodity-specific safety initiatives and continued data-sharing efforts. Specifically, the FDA noted the national cantaloupe/netted melon guidance and Western Growers data-sharing efforts as expected deliverables. 

Food Traceability 

FDA’s priorities also include continued implementation support for the Food Traceability Rule, with an emphasis on stakeholder engagement, education and readiness activities. Western Growers has been actively engaging with a range of stakeholders, including through the Food Traceability Partnership and will continue providing feedback on implementation challenges affecting growers and shippers as this work moves forward.  

Looking Ahead 

As FDA’s 2026 priorities advance, Western Growers will continue working with members and other stakeholders to support prevention-focused efforts, data-sharing projects, advance the development of guidance and best practices and assist with the implementation of FDA’s regulations. We will also remain engaged on other broader scientific priorities identified by the FDA—including contaminants in food, microplastics and other emerging issues—as these efforts evolve. 

Members are encouraged to contact Western Growers to share feedback about FDA’s priorities or participate in current and future Western Growers produce safety initiatives. Contact Sonia Salas at [email protected] with any questions. 

To access the full announcement on FDA’s 2026 Priorities, click here 

In food safety, continuous improvement is a critical element. It is explicitly called out in regulations and food safety schemes. It is at least as important as meeting baseline compliance requirements, and arguably more important.  

Compliance requirements are the universal minimum, a starting point that is applicable to all organizations and businesses. Continuous improvement is the concerted effort that moves an organization up the risk management pyramid. As a result, compliance is the foundation or entry point on which we build customized and focused improvements towards risk-based management.   

While continuous improvement is an easy concept to talk or write about, it is a much harder concept to quantify, measure and practice. In food safety, the inability to calculate impact or return on investment (ROI) is commonly stated as a significant barrier to adoption and investment in new programs, processes, and technologies. If value cannot be shown, it is often challenging to decide to invest.  

Even worse, if systems are not designed to quantify the impact of the improvement from the new investment, it becomes unclear if the system in place is even functioning at all. Without defined metrics, the question becomes – Did the system fail? Or did we fail to measure it? 

One advantage of my role is the opportunity to meet with people to see how they approach the “measurement” and “continuous improvement” concept. The most consistent advice I give food safety professionals is to start with intention. Design the process, project or investment so that adoption, impact and timing are documented from the outset. Too often, small incremental changes are made with no record that they even occurred. 

As you consider ways to quantify or measure improvement, here are some examples to evaluate: 

For environmental monitoring programs (EMP), treat seek and destroy as a measurable strategy.  

• Document efforts to look for niches that your general EMP may not find. Conduct intensive swabathons on a schedule (quarterly, bi-annually, annually) and chart where observations are found.  

• Consider looking for more than Listeria species or Salmonella. Indicator groups or index genes may give you more signal sooner on where difficult to clean areas are, and, with some side-by-side testing, you can insight between the pathogen/indicator relationships.  

• Compare swabathon results over time and against routine EMP performance. 

• Use normalized metrics such as percent positive by zone, site, or season, and connect EMP results to sanitation and operational data (e.g., results per pound produced, per amount of sanitizer used, or per crew size). 

Equipment and infrastructure investments  

• For new wash line investments, cooler, etc., define metrics before installation. 

•  Examples can include: reduction metrics on consumer complaints, decreased shrink at retailers/customers,  1-2 day shelf life improvements. 

People and Culture.  

Food safety culture requires intentional cultivation. Otherwise, you get a culture, but it might be far from the one you want. 

• Incentivize the behaviors you want. Reward employees for finding positives in EMPs, for reporting deviations, for being proactive about finding opportunities for improvement. 

• Capturing how many training or tailgate meetings you do is not a meaningful metric. Those are activities, but not truly outcomes. It is important to connect them with demonstrable value if you want to claim they are powerful.  

• Avoid relying on “it’s the right thing to do” expectations. If you want to intentionally drive behavior and culture, demonstrate to employees how much it matters to you with actions. 

• Reward employees for their efforts – gift cards, close parking spots, gifts, company swag. A little appreciation goes an enormous way.  

• Don’t fixate on rewarding groups/practices that seem “perfect”. Instead, embrace those who identify issues and fix them. Normalize wanting to find “failures” routinely…this will lead to a seek and destroy culture as opposed to making it look like we are flawless (we never are). 

Continuous improvements are critically important. We must be diligent about finding ways to measure what matters to show value, return on investment, and to cultivate the cultures we need.  

These efforts should not be viewed as food-safety-only initiatives. Improvements in food safety almost always improve quality, consumer trust, employee engagement, and organizational mindset. When designed intentionally, continuous improvement becomes a catalyst for broader operational excellence.