David Y. Ige

HONOLULU — The Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) has begun airing a series of three public service announcements (PSAs) promoting agricultural food safety in our community.

One PSA encourages farmers to follow good agricultural practices (GAP) and have their farms become GAP certified. GAP certification involves a voluntary audit that verifies that fruits and vegetables are produced, packed, handled, and stored as safely as possible to minimize risks of microbial food safety hazards.

Another PSA reminds gardeners that they should also learn about and follow good agricultural practices in their gardens. A third PSA focuses on everyone’s role in helping to keep our food safe – including farmers, wholesalers, retailers and food service providers, as well as consumers.

“Recent cases of food-related illnesses have increased public concern and we all need to pay more attention to food safety from the farm to the table,” said Scott Enright, chairperson of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. “We hope that these public service announcements encourage everyone to learn more about good agricultural and good food handling practices.”

The PSAs were produced by HDOA’s Quality Assurance Division through funding from the Hawaii State Legislature, which dedicated funds for food safety education. The $75,000 PSA campaign will run on Spectrum cable channels statewide through the end of the year. This series of PSAs is joining a PSA on rat lungworm disease produced earlier by HDOA’s Plant Pest Control Branch that has been airing since June 2017.

The PSAs also may be viewed on HDOA’s Food Safety webpage:

• Farmers and GAP
• Home Gardening Practices
• Everyone’s Role in Food Safety

HDOA has more food safety information and links to resources at: https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/qad/commodities-branch/food-safety-information/

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Media Contact:

Janelle Saneishi, Public Information Officer

Hawaii Department of Agriculture

(808) 973-9560

[email protected]
https://hdoa.hawaii.gov