Food safety has been a top priority for Western Growers, its members, consumers and the entire food industry for decades. While our industry has made significant progress in food safety, we understand the need for constant improvement, and our efforts will continue to evolve as new challenges in our industry arise. Our goal is to ensure a safe and secure food supply and healthy crops for as long as people need to eat.

Did you know… ?

• GreenLink®, developed by the Western Growers Science team in collaboration with Western Growers member companies, is the first fresh produce online platform for food safety risk management.
• The Center for Produce Safety has awarded $44.5 million and funded 226 projects related to food safety research.
• The leafy greens industry ships about 130 million servings per day all year long, enough to supply daily salads to nearly 40 percent of Americans. This equates to 47.5 billion servings of leafy greens per year.
• Under the Arizona and California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (LGMA) food safety program, government auditors verify that farmers are following over 500 different safety checkpoints.
• Farms must comply with 92 different food safety checkpoints that deal exclusively with ensuring the safety of water used to grow leafy greens.
• Foodborne illnesses may be caused by improper handling at home or in a restaurant. Farm-to-table food safety requires everyone’s participation. Here are some videos to help consumers.

Your Voice Matters

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about your organization’s food safety, please reach out to Sonia Salas, Assistant Vice President, Science at [email protected].

Click to Download

This Food Safety by the Numbers PDF is available in English for you to download and share and in Spanish here.