Some farmers were dumbfounded when they heard about the FDA’s sudden and unexpected change in food safety requirements for the use of agricultural water before harvesting a crop. The original compliance date was January 2022, but the Food and Drug Administration has delayed it.
Because agricultural water can be a major pathway for pathogens, the Food Safety Modernization Act’s produce ag-water rule originally established microbial quality standards for agricultural water, including irrigation water.
The FDA has clarified that the proposed rule only applies if the agricultural water contacts the harvestable portion of a crop. It does not apply to water applied during or after harvest. That water must still meet specific microbial standards.
As part of this, FDA points out that it is important to keep in mind that there may be other water use that requires microbial compliance, such as the water used to make up fertilizers or other crop treatments.
The feedback that the FDA received on its original version was that these microbial standards, which included numerical criteria for pre-harvest microbial water quality, may be too complex for growers to understand, translate and implement.
