It can be hard to assess risks of various water sources and take everything into consideration. The Risk Prioritization Tool for Agricultural Water was designed to help you do just that.
Principal Investigator (PI) Annalisa Hultberg, and co-PI’s Don Stoeckel and Phil Tocco worked for several years to create this educational tool with support from the NIFA Food Safety Outreach Program. The tool was designed for fresh produce growers and those who work with fresh produce growers and seek to understand how to move beyond E. coli test results for a more holistic view of water quality risk factors.
The 2024 publication of revised Subpart E in the FSMA Produce Safety Rule. The concepts integrated into the tool are based entirely on Good Agricultural Practices and other science-based principles. The authors expect that use of the Risk Prioritization Tool can be a useful aid for understanding the agricultural water system on a farm, including the water source, distribution systems, and conditions that may allow fecal-oral pathogens to enter the water. However the output of the Risk Prioritization Tool IS NOT EQUIVALENT TO AND IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE for doing an agricultural water assessment as described in revised Subpart E.The Risk Prioritization Tool for agricultural water is available in both Excel or and paper (manual calculations). In addition, training scenarios are available to help guide usage of the tool.
If a grower has specific questions about water risks or has difficulty tailoring GAPs to their farm, they are welcome to contact the Agrifood Safety Work Group at gaps@msu.edu or (517) 788-4292.
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Article by Phil Tocco, MSU Extension Educator