Food safety doesn't worry Lisa Flowers when she shops at farmers markets.
When the Milford resident buys baked goods or jams at a farmers market, she believes the food is safer than what she gets in a grocery store.
She said she has so much more confidence in the farm-to-table movement that she has purchased a bruised apple from a farmers market –something she wouldn't do at a grocery store.
So she was surprised and reassured to learn about a food safety program that educates farmers who make and sell their products at farmers markets and stands.
"That's just an added part of the safety for us in having that process," Flowers said. "I'm really glad that there are people out there watching that."
Farmers markets have been around for a long time, but today’s markets have grown beyond selling whole fruits and vegetables. These markets now include food that is processed, cut open and have samples to lure potential buyers.
Sales of locally produced foods make up a small but growing part of U.S. agricultural transactions, according to a congressional study issued last month. The report estimates that local food sales total between $4 billion and $12 billion annually. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that local food sales totaled $6.1 billion in 2012, the last year statistics are available, reflecting sales from nearly 164,000 farmers selling locally marketed foods.
The offerings at farmers markets have become so complex that there's been a need to be more involved in ensuring food safety, and state agencies across the country have become more vigilant. For example, Delaware farmers who want to sell small amounts of foods at farmers markets or roadside stands must go through the state Department of Agriculture's Food Safety for Entrepreneurs program.
The program was developed in the mid-2000s to provide an outlet for farmers to sell certain products locally without having to go through the commercial kitchen process, said Dan Shortridge, a spokesman for the department. And because farmers can use their own kitchens, the program shows them how to make sure certain foods are safe to sell to the public.
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Farmers who go through the program learn to identify potentially hazardous foods, they understand food-borne pathogens and ways to control them. They also are taught to reduce the risk of food-borne illness, evaluate plans for controlling potential microbial problems and understand state regulations of food items.
"I can say that this program provides training, licensing and inspections to make sure that items produced in these farm kitchens are safe, unadulterated and properly labeled," Shortridge said. "All licensed kitchens have to be inspected and must follow very detailed criteria for food contact surfaces, water supply, wastewater system, dishwashing, storage areas and handwashing, among other topics."
All license holders undergo comprehensive food safety training either through the University of Delaware or the ServSafe training program – a food and beverage safety training required by most restaurants as a basic credential for their management staff.
In addition, Shortridge said all foods produced under this permit must contain a statement to that effect on the label that the item is home-produced and processed so consumers are aware of the source.
Some of the foods this program covers are baked goods, non-chocolate candy, jellies, jams or preserves, maple syrup, dried fruits or vegetables and snack items like popcorn or caramel corn.
While recent events, such as Chipotle closing its restaurants last month following an E. coli outbreak, can leave people with questions about food safety, Georgetown-area farmer Laura Kramer said there is no need to worry when everything is properly done.
Kramer, who operates LaBella Farm and has gone through the yearly certification, said if foods are handled properly from before the harvest right through the preparation, consumers have little to worry about.
"Food-borne illnesses are completely preventable by proper handling of food products," she said.
In the past, people were less sure about what they were buying at a farmers market, said Jody Vasey, who along with her family operate Water Girl Farm in Lincoln. She's also been certified through the state's food safety program.
Vasey said that people looking to buy food at the farmers market weren't sure if the products had the correct water content, if they were baked correctly or if they had products that could cause allergic reactions – this is something important to her as her daughter has a peanut allergy.
"I certainly wouldn't want to buy a baked good for my daughter ... from someone that had [their] baked good items" next to peanuts," she said. "When I go to a farmers market, I want to make sure that those people have gone through that course and that they were educated on food safety and sanitization and their kitchen was inspected.
"It's all very important now."
To prevent this sort of contamination, farmers are taught to separate food items they use for personal consumption from ones they will be using for sale. They also cannot eat where they make the food for sale.
"It seems a little bit more difficult, Vasey said. "But when you pay attention to those things, you know that your kitchen is just a safer place to make baked goods."
Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, firstname.lastname@example.org or Twitter @eparra3.