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
Abstract
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.
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