University of Georgia researchers in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences are part of a $3.5 million grant designed to assist organic producers in meeting both National Organic Program standards and food safety requirements.

Abhinav Mishra, an associate professor and graduate program coordinator in the Department of Food Science and Technology, and Govindaraj Dev Kumar, an assistant professor with the UGA Center for Food Safety, are the UGA co-principal investigators for the project in collaboration with researchers from the University of Rhode Island, University of California, Davis and the Organic Center.

The team will work together over the next four years to “reduce the operational and administrative barriers to compliance with multiple regulations for organic growers,” Mishra said.

Mishra and Dev Kumar will be responsible for conducting surveys of soil amendments, such as poultry litter, used by organic producers across the Southeast. Then the researchers will perform lab experiments to determine the risk of contamination in organic crops by different environmental pathogens.

“We will use these risk assessment models to identify which environmental and farm practice factors contribute to the food safety risk of fresh, organic food,” said Mishra, adding that environmental factors can include climate and weather, wildlife, and contamination from external sources off-farm.

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