What was that process like, and are the GAPs still useful?
We waded through a lot of information to put recommendations in that guidance. It was still a relatively new concept that contamination (of produce) should be a concern in the fields. Ultimately the guidance we came out with — even though it was broad in scope — was good common sense and for the most part, seems to have standing the test of time. It seems like the GAPs guidance has well received and widely adopted, although not universally yet. Q: Do we have any statistics on the percentage of growers who have adopted GAPs? A: I can’t quote you any numbers. The question has been (after the incidence of foodborne illness outbreaks), ‘Was it because of the failure to adopt GAPs, or are there gaps in the GAPs?’ That’s the question I started hearing in 2004 and we are still asking that question. There have been a number of surveys that different people have sponsored (about grower adoption of GAPs) … but it might be valuable to have impartial data on something like that. The encouraging ne
