Packaged Foods Manufacturing Short-Course Feb 11, Raleigh

The Center for Environmental Farming Systems, NC Cooperative Extension and NC State University are excited to offer a short-course on Packaged Foods Manufacturing!

This fast-paced workshop is geared towards entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, farmers market vendors and those thinking about getting started in packaged foods but don't quite know where to begin. There are a myriad of rules and regulations to follow, including, completion of the Acidified Foods Processing and Packaging Better Process Control School. While this this short-course will not certify you to sell acidified foods, it will give you a better understanding of the process and how you can get started!

Packaged Foods Manufacturing Short-Course
Date: Monday, February 11
Time: 9:00a.m. to 4:00p.m.
Registration Fee: $20
Location: TBA, Raleigh, NC

Organizers: CEFS, Wake County Cooperative Extension, and NC State University

Featured Speakers: Dr. Fletcher Arritt, Food Safety and Processing Extension Specialist, NCSU,  Dr. Benjamin Chapman, Assistant Professor and Extension Food Safety Specialist, and Allison Smathers, NCSU, Entrepreneurial Food Program Assistant
Thinking about selling fermented, acidified (pickled), or other packaged foods at restaurants, farmers' markets or retail vendors? There are a myriad of stringent guidelines that must be followed in order to do so, including keeping certain records or perhaps acquiring a label, getting a process authority letter and taking the multiday Acidified Foods GMP School for Pickle Manufacturers course or others offered by NCSU. 
This workshop is designed to give participants a VERY general idea of what is expected by regulators to manufacture and sell packaged food products and about the Pickling School, briefly covering such topics as: basic food safety, supervisory skills, pH levels in your products, sample submission process, labeling, kitchen certification, record keeping and more. The purpose of this course is to provide you with a VERY BRIEF outline of the processes you will need to go through in order to sell your products.
THIS COURSE WILL NOT CERTIFY YOU TO SELL ACIDIFIED FOODS OR ANY OTHERS TO THE PUBLIC.

For more information or to register, please visit the CEFS website.
For more information contact Lisa Forehand at 919-513-0954 or lisa_forehand@ncsu.edu

Pack 'N Cool

N.C. State University’s Plants for Human Health Institute (PHHI) has developed a mobile, cost-efficient cooling unit for farmers. The “Pack ‘N Cool” is a refrigerated trailer designed to keep fruits and vegetables at ideal temperatures during transport to and from farmers markets or as they’re harvested in farm fields. The unit was developed to be a free training tool and model that farmers can use for building their own versions.

View the full news release   “Pack ‘N Cool” Provides Farmers with Mobile Refrigeration Solution | Plants For Human Health Institute- as well as building instructions, step-by-step photos and a budget - on our website. A photo is attached as well ("Dr. Penelope Perkins-Veazie, postharvest physiologist with PHHI, coordinated development of the Pack 'N Cool.").

Very cool!!

USDA Awards $46 Million to Specialty Crops Projects

The USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded 29 grants across 19 states in Specialty Crops Research to develop and share science-based tools to address the needs of the specialty crop industry.

The entire list of awards and projects can be found here.

Some of the projects include:

• Developing an inexpensive, accurate, easy-to-use biosensor for the detection of Salmonella contamination of fresh globe fruits (tomatoes, cantaloupes and watermelons) - Auburn University

• Developing biorenewable and biodegradable containers as a greener alternative to the petroleum-based pots used in the container specialty crop industry - Iowa State University

• Identifying and developing improved basil varieties with resistance/tolerance to downy mildew, Fusarium wilt and chilling-injury - Rutgers University

• Advancing the productivity and profitability of U.S. fruiting vegetable enterprises by integrating grafting technologies into tomato and melon production systems - NC State University

• Improving the long-term viability of the fresh U.S. grown mushroom industry by marketing mushrooms as an excellent source of Vitamin D - St. Joseph's University

Blueberry Producers: New Website from NCSU

A new blueberry growers information portal is now available as a one-stop shop resource to agents, growers, home gardeners and others. The portal includes information on the management, production and marketing of blueberries. The information represents the work of several departments.

The blueberry growers information portal (http://ncsu.edu/enterprises/blueberries/) , along with other growers information portals -- strawberry, blackberry/raspberry, tomato -- are part of the Plants for Human Health Institute website (http://plantsforhumanhealth.ncsu.edu). You'll find the growers information portals in the Extension (N.C. MarketReady) section. The blueberry portal was supported by a grant from the N.C. Rural Center and the Agricultural Advancement Consortium.

New North Carolina Blueberry Blog

Bill Cline from the Plant Pathology Department at NC State University has just launched the NC Blueberry Journal blog.

Mr. Cline is the premier blueberry specialist in the state and has some outstanding resources and knowledge to share with NC growers. The NC Blueberry Journal blog is meant to be a resource for Cooperative Extension agents, growers and blueberry enthusiasts. The blog will have topics related to blueberry production including variety descriptions, disease and insect information and other curiosities.

Enjoy!

Two-Day Food Safety Course for Small Producers Interested in Marketing Rabbit Meat

Contact: Janna Spruill, regulatiry programs coordinator, Food and Drug Protection Division (919) 733-7366

RALEIGH -- A two-day course geared toward rabbit producers interested in selling rabbit meat will be held May 3 and 4 at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River. The deadline to register for the course is April 27.

The NCSU Poultry Science Department and the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services are hosting the event to provide the basics for rabbit producers. Course topics include rabbit processing, the principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, small business management, good manufacturing practices and sanitation standard operating procedures. Attendees will also participate in practical exercises as part of the course.

Cost for the workshop is $50 and includes lunch and printed materials. Registration information is available online at www.ncagr.gov/markets/agribiz/. To register by mail, make checks payable to N.C. Ag Promotions and mail to NCDA&CS, 1020 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1020, Attn. Ron Fish. For more information, contact Janna Spruill at (919) 733-7366 or janna.spruill@ncagr.gov, or Doug Smith at (919) 513-7157 or doug_smith@ncsu.edu.

To view the event flier click here.

Researchers Taking Bite Out of Late Blight

Late Blight on Tomato Leaf

• The North Carolina State effort will focus on the development of an online national late blight reporting and alert system.

• The system, which will show farmers late blight outbreaks across the nation, will include what is known as decision support information on how best to deal with the disease.

North Carolina State University scientists will be heavily involved in a national effort to help farmers better manage a plant disease called late blight, which can decimate tomatoes and potatoes.

Jean Ristaino, a professor of plant pathology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State, and Ryan Boyles, state climatologist and director of the State Climate Office of North Carolina, which is located on North Carolina State’s Centennial Campus, are part of a $9 million, 5-year U.S. Department of Agriculture effort to give farmers better tools to use in dealing with late blight. The effort is being led by the University of California at Riverside but will involve scientists across the nation.

Ristaino said the North Carolina State effort will focus on the development of an online national late blight reporting and alert system. This system, which will show farmers late blight outbreaks across the nation, will include what is known as decision support information on how best to deal with the disease.

Late blight, which is caused by a pathogen called Phytophthora infestans, infects American tomato and potato crops every year, Ristaino explained, but various factors, including weather, determine whether the disease causes significant crop losses from year to year.

The disease was particularly bad in 2009, she added, when cooler than normal temperatures and abundant rainfall helped spread late blight. In 2009, late blight destroyed much of the tomato production in the northeast U.S.

Ristaino said growers can protect their crops from the disease if they apply fungicide prior to a disease outbreak and if they apply the correct fungicide.

The system that Boyles and Ristaino are developing is designed to give farmers the information they need to protect their crops from the disease.

The state climate office will develop an online map that will use information from monitoring teams around the nation to locate late blight outbreaks.

Usually begins in Florida Ristaino said that on the East Coast, the disease typically begins each spring on tomatoes in Florida and then spreads to other areas by weather events.
The spores that cause the disease can be carried on the wind, although Ristaino said that in 2009 most pathogen movement was the result of the shipment of infected plants from one part of the country to another.

The severity of the disease also depends to a large degree on the strain, or type, of late blight. Working with scientists at Cornell University in New York, Ristaino will determine the type of late blight found in farmer’s fields. Ristaino said 24 different late blight strains, or genotypes, have been found in the United States, and some of these strains tend to damage one crop, either
tomatoes or potatoes, more than the other.

At the same time, different strains are more or less susceptible to different fungicides. In 2009, five different strains were found on tomatoes and potatoes, but one particular strain, US-22, did most of the damage, she added.

When reporting teams across the country find the disease, they will send samples to Cornell and North Carolina State and to Oregon State on the West Coast. At North Carolina State, Ristaino’s lab will determine the disease genotype. This information along with the location of the disease will be available through the online map.

The late blight website will also include information on how best to protect crops from the disease. Ristaino added that as she and other scientists identify late blight strains they should be able to track the development of strains that are resistant to various fungicides, information that should be extremely helpful in aiding farmers in managing the disease.

Ristaino said the project also includes an educational component. Summer internships will be available to undergraduate students who wish to work on the project.

The reporting and alert system is expected to be operational for the 2011 growing season, and Ristaino said she expects to begin receiving disease samples in early May.

She added that the disease typically moves up the East Coast as the growing season progresses. Late blight is usually found on North Carolina potatoes in June, while it’s usually found on tomatoes in western North Carolina in late July and August.

This year, farmers should be better prepared than in the past when late blight makes its annual appearance.

Source URL: http://southeastfarmpress.com/vegetables/researchers-taking-
bite-out-late-blight

2011-04-08
Byline: By Dave Caldwell, North Carolina State University