In an effort to safeguard consumers and the industry’s future by improving produce safety knowledge, Western Growers (WG) and Taylor Farms are each donating $1 million to the Center for Produce Safety (CPS). The donation will help continue CPS’ work to fund science, find solutions and fuel change in fresh produce food safety.

“We are in an era of greater transparency, and the high expectations that come with transparency about how this industry operates and the standards that it adheres to,” said WG President and CEO Dave Puglia in a CPS press release. Along with labor and water, “food safety has joined a triumvirate of challenging issues that need our full attention.”

WG and Taylor Farms are the first Diamond ($1,000,000+) level supporters to a capital fundraising campaign that Center for Produce Safety unveiled in late January. CPS has now raised over $5 million toward its $15 million goal to finance produce-specific food safety research, and to transfer research learnings to industry, government and other stakeholders, over the next five years.

“For us, investing in Center for Produce Safety promises to deliver practical, science-based solutions to enhance food safety practices that will be realized by technology in many cases,” said Puglia.

WG also contributed $1 million to CPS in 2015 during CPS’s previous campaign. For more information about the 2020 campaign and to see the full list of donors (many of which are WG members), visit the CPS Campaign for Research website here.