The resources on this page are intended to advance your understanding of food safety for produce in child nutrition operations. This includes resources on produce safety that describe best practices for receiving, storing, handling, and purchasing fresh and fresh-cut produce through videos, fact sheets, and PowerPoint presentations.
Fresh produce provides many nutritional benefits, but it must be handled safely to reduce the risk of foodborne illness. Harmful bacteria residing in soil or water may come into contact with fresh produce at any point during the plant’s growth, harvest, processing, transportation, storage, preparation, or service. Fresh produce that is served raw does not go through a cooking step to kill any harmful bacteria that may be present before it is served to students, and, therefore has the potential to cause a foodborne illness.