# Designing a Produce Safety Program in the State of Utah in Preparation of Implementation of the FDA Produce Safety Rule

> **NIH FDA U18** · UTAH DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE/FOOD · 2020 · $650,977

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Organization: State of Utah, Department of Agriculture and Food
Funding Opportunity Announcement Number: PAR-16-137
The mission statement for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) is to promote the
healthy growth of Utah agriculture, conserve our natural resources and protect our food supply.
Our priorities are to improve communication and awareness of agriculture, ensure food safety and
consumer protection, and to build partnerships and advocates. UDAF endeavors to utilize the FDA
Produce Safety Rule (PSR), a science-based, preventive rule for the safe growing, harvesting,
packing, and holding of produce, to advance our mission. We seek to participate in FDA’s formal
collaboration opportunity found in PAR-16-137 (State and Territory Cooperative Agreement to
Enhance Produce Safety in Preparation of Implementation of FDA's Rule: Standards for the
Growing, Harvesting, Packing, & Holding of Produce for Human Consumption), a cooperative
agreement that will assist UDAF with the implementation of the PSR.
The broad, long-term objectives of UDAF, via the program, are to establish a multi-faceted food
safety program to encourage the safe production of fresh produce and to promote compliance with
the requirements of the Produce Safety Rule. The specific aims of UDAF are to update Utah Code to
expand our jurisdiction to include farms; establish and maintain a produce farm inventory by
requiring farms to register with UDAF; develop a produce landscape that assists with risk
categorization of farms; provide resources for the produce safety program’s infrastructure
including staffing and IT development; collaborate with the FDA to develop a multi-year plan to
implement a new produce safety system and define performance measures; develop and provide
education, outreach and technical assistance in multiple formats, prioritizing covered farms;
develop and provide education, outreach and technical assistance to regulators; collaborate with
the FDA to design and implement a compliance program with sharable data; and develop program
measurements to objectively measure progress utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data.
The outcomes of the integration of the Produce Safety Rule are an educated regulatory and farming
community as well as a robust inspection-based compliance program. These outcomes benefit Utah
by ensuring food safety, promoting the healthy growth of Utah agriculture, and building
partnerships and advocates.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9966757
- **Project number:** 5U18FD005910-05
- **Recipient organization:** UTAH DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE/FOOD
- **Principal Investigator:** Travis Pine Waller
- **Activity code:** U18 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** FDA
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $650,977
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-05 → 2021-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9966757

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9966757, Designing a Produce Safety Program in the State of Utah in Preparation of Implementation of the FDA Produce Safety Rule (5U18FD005910-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9966757. Licensed CC0.

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