Jumpstart to Produce Safety: Tailored Technical Assistance Increases Adoption of Food Safety Practices on Small and Underserved Farms
ISSN 2158-9429
Volume 19, Issue 1 - June 2026
Editor: Bindu Poudel-Ward
Choate, M., Food Safety Field Specialist, UNH Extension
Machado, R., Associate Extension Professor and Food Science Specialist, UMaine Extension
Abstract
This revised submission incorporates the feedback from the NACAA reviewers, specifically detailing the methods used to recruit and train participants, expanding on the relevance of the program, adding a limitations section, and including peer-reviewed literature citations.
Small and mid-sized produce operations frequently face complex technical and economic barriers to adopting food safety practices. The Jumpstart to Produce Safety Program, a collaborative effort between the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and University of Maine (UMaine) Extension, provides a model for overcoming these hurdles through individualized, on-farm technical assistance and peer-to-peer micro-learning videos. By shifting the focus from "perfection" to incremental risk reduction, the program successfully empowered 28 New Hampshire farms to implement measurable practice changes. This manuscript details the program’s observational, outcome-based methodology.
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