More than 60 auditors, buyers, growers and government officials came together in Maitland, Fla., this week to coordinate efforts on the use of the new Food Safety Programs and Auditing Protocols for the Fresh Tomato Supply Chain.

"These sessions were designed to orient and calibrate tomato auditors in the use of the new tomato food safety standards," said United Fresh Senior Vice President of Food Safety and Technology Dr. David Gombas. "The standards can be used by any size tomato field, packing house, greenhouse or repacking operation in North America. We expect that suppliers and buyers alike will find that use of these harmonized standards facilitates and reduces costs in their food safety verification systems."

Hosted by the Florida Tomato Exchange, the auditor training workshop is the first of its kind, and the only scheduled to date. During the workshop, facilitators led discussion on the protocols’ four modules: Open Field Production, Harvest and Field Packing; Greenhouse; Packinghouse; and Repacking and Distribution.

Facilitators at the training included Dr. Gombas, Reggie Brown of the Florida Tomato Exchange, Darden Restaurants' Larry Robertson, Dr. Martha Roberts of the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Ed LaClair of NSF Davis Fresh, California Tomato Growers' Ed Beckman, Jack in the Box's Andy Kesler and Joshua Funk of KFC.

Also at the session, Capt. Thomas Hill, environmental health officer with the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, gave a presentation on some of the agency's observations from past field inspections.

"We hear a great deal about audit fatigue at FDA," said Capt. Hill. "Having these protocols in place and training auditors in how to apply them should help reduce that issue."

"The most important part of the process this week was to have the auditors see the completed standards and checklists, while at the same time giving each auditor a forum to share his or her comments and concerns," said Darden's Robertson. "This approach has really validated the development of the audit protocols."

The Commodity Specific Guidelines for the Fresh Tomato Supply Chain, 2nd Edition and audit protocol documents, as well as the respective checklists are available for download in both English and Spanish by clicking here.