Food Safety News
Here are some things consumers might wonder about: Do the places where farmworkers stay have clean water — or even running water? Do they have showers with hot and cold water so farmworkers can bathe after coming in from the fields? Are there any washing machines or driers — or enough of them — so they can wash their clothes and come to work in clean clothing? How overcrowded is the housing? And how does the lack of sanitation and the overcrowding contribute to communicable diseases?
Consider this fact offered by Equitable Food Initiative’s O’Driscoll: “Often, the first and last hands to touch the strawberries that are picked and packed into clam shells in the field and sold to consumers are the farmworkers’ hands.”
That can also be true for a range of other fresh produce such as blueberries, cherries and salad greens.
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