The Food and Drug Administration has made public draft, commodity-specific, food safety guidance for tomatoes, melons and leafy greens available for download on the FDA website.

The guidance, released July 31, is intended to cover the entire supply chain, from production and harvest to processing, distribution and user handling at retail or foodservice. The release of the draft guidance meets a deadline announced by the Obama Administration on July 7.

"United Fresh Produce Association is very pleased that FDA has moved forward quickly in publishing its draft guidance documents," said United Fresh President and CEO Tom Stenzel. "Our industry has worked hard since 2004 to develop commodity-specific guidance documents in each of these areas, and now strongly supports FDA taking these efforts to a new level. Although we consulted with FDA constantly in the development of past guidance, it has always been important that the government make its own independent judgment of the most appropriate food safety practices and provide its stamp of approval and endorsement on specific recommendations."

The draft guidance documents can be found at the following links:

FDA Draft Industry Guidance for Melons
FDA Draft Industry Guidance for Tomatoes
FDA Draft Industry Guidance for Leafy Greens

United Fresh will review the draft industry guidance and gather feedback from members for submitting comments to FDA. Members may submit their own comments within 90 days to FDA at this address: Division of Dockets Management (HFA-305), Food and Drug Administration, 5630 Fishers Lane, rm. 1061, Rockville, MD 20852.& You may submit electronic comments to http://www.regulations.gov.