In April, more than 135 food system stakeholders gathered in Kathmandu for a national policy consultation to discuss opportunities to strengthen produce safety in Nepal. The group’s recommendations were captured in a draft resolution which will be shared with the government representatives charged with developing strategies to implement a new, more stringent food safety law.

“Food safety is pivotal to building a sustainable food system in Nepal and supporting a well-nourished population,” said Aditya Khanal, associate professor and agricultural economist at Tennessee State University. “And while Nepal has enacted numerous policy initiatives to strengthen food safety systems, microbial foodborne pathogens—particularly in fruits and vegetables—have received less attention than chemical contaminants and physical hazards.”

The meeting was organized by Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), the Nepal Food Scientists and Technologists Association, Tennessee State University, and the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety (FSIL), which funded Khanal’s two-year project on Nepali food safety economics and microbial food safety. In convening the event, the organizers hoped to foster discussion about existing data, identify persistent knowledge gaps, and support informed decision-making in the food safety policy landscape.

“In May, the Nepal National Assembly approved the Food Hygiene and Quality Bill and is expected to draft a strategy to put this new bill into practice,” said Ram Hari Timilsina, FSIL project co-PI and associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology at AFU. “Our FSIL project findings will be very supportive of these efforts, so it was timely to share them with policymakers and other relevant stakeholders.”

The meeting attracted a broad range of stakeholders including representatives from federal, provincial, and local government, the private sector, farmers, extension agents, consumers, researchers, universities, and non-governmental organizations. The first panel discussion featured results from the FSIL project in Nepal, including water contamination rates on farms and in households, evidence for consumer and grower support for safer food, gender dynamics that could affect food safety initiatives, and project recommendations. A project brief with the recommendations is available in Nepali and English.

“It was rewarding to share our findings and evidence-based recommendations and receive positive feedback from stakeholders,” said Khanal. “Our research, notably the studies on risk indicators in water sources in fresh produce and the food safety behaviors of consumers and producers, using nationally representative data, was marked as very timely. During the panel discussions and Q&A sessions, participants showed keen interest in the findings and contextualizing them at the local, regional, and national levels.”

Subsequent sessions focused on the status of food safety in Nepal, data and evidence needed to inform policy, and generating advocacy and awareness about food safety. The meeting culminated in a session that synthesized the day’s debate and discussion for a draft resolution that will be circulated among Nepali authorities with oversight over aspects of food safety.

Key points include:

• The recognition that food safety is a human right;
• The acknowledgment of the multidimensional nature of food safety, including chemical, physical, and microbial hazards and diverse stakeholders in the private, government, and consumer sectors;
• The identification of specific challenges to food safety, such as low consumer food safety awareness, the risk of contamination in produce from poor quality agricultural and household water, the need for food safety testing infrastructure, and the harmonization of national and international food safety standards; and
• The potential for Nepal to leapfrog ahead in food safety using rapid digital diagnostic techniques and genomics.
• The draft resolution also emphasizes the need to prioritize the food safety awareness and training of women, who play important roles in food handling, and the value of cross-sectoral partnerships. In the future, the resolution recommends exploring financial and technical support to assist farmers in adopting Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) for adhering to safer production and becoming NepalGAPs certified.

“The meeting was a valuable opportunity to sensitize stakeholders to the importance of microbiological food safety in fresh produce,” said Timilsina. “To build on this, it is vital that we collaborate across sectors to develop and implement educational programs at the grassroots level for farmers and develop the infrastructure and legal provisions for effective implementation of the recent bill.”

In Nigeria, foodborne illness is a significant public health issue, causing over 200,000 deaths a year and contributing to a childhood stunting rate of 37% in children under the age of five. To develop strategies to address food safety at the household level, researchers funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety (FSIL) are working with citizen scientists to understand the challenges mothers face in providing safe, nutritious meals for their families.

“Exposure to unsafe food in the household through inappropriate food storage, cross-contamination, and the presence of an infected food handler may create a vicious cycle of diarrheal illness that threatens the nutritional status of the most vulnerable, especially infants and young children,” said Abiodun Atoloye, assistant professor of nutrition science at Utah State University and a FSIL Nigeria project co-PI.

The team of researchers, based in Nigeria and the United States, recruited 55 mothers from five local government areas in Ibadan, the country’s third-largest city by population. The participants received training in how to use the Our Voice Discovery Tool app. The tool, developed by Stanford Medicine, allows citizen scientists to identify features in their communities that impact healthy living by capturing photos of and thoughts about assets and barriers.

“When brainstorming approaches to collecting robust data, we thought it would be a good tool to capture the inclusion of diverse voices and perspectives,” Atoloye said. Both she and project PI Andrea Bersamin, professor in the Department of Biology and Wildlife at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, had previously used the app in other research projects focused on community health and nutrition.

In the first phase, the participants received daily prompts through the Our Voice app over five days. In response, they provided information about their practices in important domains of food safety, including food storage, food purchases, meal preparation, eating, and household hygiene. The women took photos and captured narrative data about anything they noted would contribute to food safety, such as purchasing food from vendors who keep their products securely covered, as well as obstacles they faced, such as maintaining cleanliness in communal cooking spaces. Throughout the process, research assistants provided on-site and virtual assistance to participants to ensure a smooth data collection process.

Although most participants reported being knowledgeable about food safety and using safe practices, the project’s earlier analysis of household food contact surfaces revealed that contamination was very common. In addition, children in the study households also frequently suffered from stunting, wasting, and malnutrition.

“Our findings from their lived experiences using Our Voice and stakeholder interviews suggest that the drivers of food safety – and potentially malnutrition – span all levels of the social-ecological model,” Atoloye said. “Individual-level food safety knowledge, behavior, and practices are only part of the solution.”

The Our Voice data helped identify systemic challenges. Some arose within the household, such as shared facilities for meal preparation and insufficient financial resources. Other food safety barriers involved infrastructure and governance: power outages, poor water and sanitation infrastructure, and non-compliance with food safety regulations at the policy level.

“The daily prompts served as an eye-opener for the women to identify risks as they relate to food safety practices in their households,” said Folake Samuel, project co-PI and professor of public health at the University of Ibadan.  “The process also fostered woman-to-woman learning, as the discussions provided a platform for mothers to share their practical and relatable personal values, strategies, practices and experiences as they relate to food storage, preservation, and hygiene.”

In the second phase of the study, the mothers met to identify common themes around strengths, resources, and challenges for each daily prompt and to identify potential solutions. Priorities included food safety training for vendors, environmental sanitation enforcement, and improved access to essential communal amenities. As a culmination of the project, researchers and selected mothers will engage with other stakeholders in their community, including primary health care providers, community development personnel, representatives from the State Ministry and civil societies, and community-based organizations, to collaboratively identify and recommend public health solutions based on the mothers’ identified priorities.

Many of the Our Voice participants expressed interest in participating in future studies, motivated by their newfound understanding of food safety risks and the desire to contribute to improving their community’s health and well-being.

“Over the course of this project, strong connections were made that have the potential to drive positive changes,” Atoloye said.

Additional co-PIs for the project include Bolanle Otegbayo (Bowen University), Abiodun Areola (University of Ibadan), Nkem Torimiro (Obafemi Awolowo University), and Olufemi Aluko (Obafemi Awolowo University).

Olivia Hall is a freelance writer with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety. The lab is one of more than 20 Innovation Labs with U.S. universities under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative led by USAID.

By Christina Frank

The production of safe fruits and vegetables requires farmers to manage potential sources of foodborne pathogens, from keeping uncomposted or raw manure out of fields where crops are being sown to washing produce in clean, uncontaminated water at harvest. In Nepal, demand for fresh produce has been rising due to an increased awareness of its nutritional benefits. Growers and extension agents now have a new resource to understand the risks and steps they can take to safeguard fruits and vegetables: a grower’s manual created by a project funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety.

Safeguarding fruits and vegetables from foodborne pathogens can seem like a daunting proposition. Contamination can occur at any stage from farm to table—from sources including animal feces in the field, irrigation and wash water, harvesting containers, or infected workers—and it can lead to serious foodborne illnesses.

“Improper handling and contamination of fresh produce by pathogens can lead to outbreaks of diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and various forms of bacterial infections,” said lead author Agnes Kilonzo-Nthenge, research professor in the Department of Food and Animal Sciences at Tennessee State University (TSU). Common pathogens found in raw produce include bacteria such as E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, and Campylobacter, as well as mold-causing fungi, parasites, and viruses such as norovirus, rotavirus, and the hepatitis A virus.

The manual explains that fruits and vegetables consumed raw can pose a higher food safety risk since they don’t undergo a “kill step” during cooking that would inactivate microbial pathogens.  Root crops such as onions, carrots, and beets—in which the edible portions of the crop are in direct contact with soil— as well as lettuce, spinach, papaya, mango, and mushrooms are among the fruits and vegetables most likely to carry pathogens if not properly handled.

In response to produce growers’ and extension workers’ requests for guidance on food safety practices to improve the quality and marketability of their produce, the project convened a group of subject matter experts to establish a Food Safety Working Group in Nepal. In April, the first copies of their manual, entitled “Fresh Produce Safety and Good Agricultural Practices for Produce Growers in Nepal: A Grower’s Guide,” were shared at a national policy consultation on produce safety in Kathmandu.

“In our project, we’ve found that extension professionals in Nepal often lack sufficient knowledge about food safety, indicating that awareness and practices are needed in the country,” said Ram Hari Timilsina, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology at Nepal’s Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU). “Our multi-pronged approach to raising awareness on fresh produce food safety has employed evidence-based policy recommendations, scientific publications, and outreach materials like this manual.”

The 52-page manual addresses steps to reduce, manage, and mitigate microbial threats to the safety of fresh produce in areas across the entire production process, such as worker hygiene, agricultural water, biological soil amendments, livestock management, wild animal intrusion, and cleaning protocols for farm equipment, tools, and buildings. Both Timilsina and Kilonzo-Nthenge stressed that contaminated water is among the most significant sources of harmful microorganisms in fruit and vegetable production systems.

“Water used for irrigation, washing, and applying pesticides is an efficient vehicle for transmitting harmful microorganisms to fruits and vegetables, potentially leading to foodborne illnesses,” says Timilsina. The teams’ survey of water safety in Nepal showed contamination in water sources used in irrigation and washing produce is common, and the manual details steps to reduce the risk to consumers.

The manual concludes with guidance for developing a farm food safety plan, a short but thorough document that outlines a set of standard operating procedures that farm workers should follow to meet food safety standards. Also, in the event of a foodborne illness investigation, the plan can be useful in identifying potential sources of contamination on a specific farm.

So far, 300 copies of the manual have been distributed to government offices and other stakeholders, and the manual is available on the FSIL website for download and noncommercial distribution. In addition, a Nepali translation is in the works, which the authors hope will further empower growers to provide consumers with safe, nutritious produce.

“The implementation of these practices will help the fresh produce growers work towards building a more resilient and inclusive food system in Nepal,” says Kilonzo-Nthenge (TSU). “This will ensure the safety, quality, and sustainability of fresh produce from farm to fork.”

The manual was written and compiled by Agnes Kilonzo-Nthenge (TSU), Ram Hari Timilsina, (AFU), Jonathan H. Sogin (Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety), project principal investigator Aditya R. Khanal (TSU), Debraj Adhikari (Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Nepal), and Sabitri Adhikari (Nepal Agricultural Research Council).

Christina Frank is a freelance writer with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety. The Innovation Lab is one of a network of 20 such labs led by U.S. universities under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative led by USAID.

Kenyan researchers are leading an effort to strengthen food safety practices among the small and midsize poultry enterprises that feed Nairobi’s growing population.  With foodborne illness estimated to cost the Kenyan economy one billion U.S. dollars annually, addressing food safety in the poultry sector is an important focus due to the impact of foodborne disease on public health, the economic costs arising from lost productivity and medical treatment, and the implications for food security and economic opportunity.

“In Kenya, where undernutrition rates are high and the population-environment balance is delicate, the poultry value chain plays a very crucial role in addressing hunger and poverty towards the United Nations’ first two Sustainable Development Goals: No Hunger and Zero Poverty,” said Professor Catherine Kunyanga, associate professor and associate dean at the University of Nairobi, who serves as co-lead PI for the project with Dr. Robert Onsare, Principal Research Scientist and Acting Deputy Director for the One Health Approach Research Program at the Kenya Medical Research Institute. “Poultry business has recently been picked up by women and youth in most parts of the country as a quick source of income and livelihood for many households because it is profitable and provides a good source of animal-based protein that assures households’ nutrition security in Kenya.”

Chicken products can provide high-quality nutrients for vulnerable populations, but contamination with bacterial foodborne pathogens remains a global challenge in poultry production and processing environments. In recent years, foodborne illnesses from Salmonella and Campylobacter have occurred at an increasing frequency in Kenya, contributing to public health concerns about foodborne illness and antibiotic resistance. The new project, funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety, will bridge key knowledge gaps and develop a training program for small-scale poultry enterprises.

The team is using three approaches to build a foundation for safer poultry. They are conducting microbiological surveys to understand current Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination levels, using whole genome sequencing to precisely characterize the bacterial isolates present in the value chain, and analyzing the roles and food safety risks to men, women, and youth involved in poultry production.

The overall goal of the microbial survey is to provide baseline data on the prevalence of contamination with Salmonella and Campylobacter in the poultry value chain. Testing for these key foodborne pathogens will occur at critical points along the chicken production chain in Kiambu County: farms where poultry is produced and processed, transport/aggregation service providers, and point-of-sale (butcheries). Whole genome sequencing will be used to genetically characterize the pathogens’ ability to cause foodborne disease, including virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance genes.

“We expect that the baseline assessments from the study will provide the much-needed data to assist the national and county governments in Kenya, farmers, researchers, poultry butchery businesses, food safety regulators, and other stakeholders in prioritizing food safety intervention efforts, training programs, research needs, and policy regarding food safety in the poultry food value chain,” said Onsare. “The project outcomes and data are expected to impact not only Kiambu County, where the project is based, but they could also be scaled up in Kenya in general with a possibility of global application in similar production systems.”

Concurrently with the pathogen survey, the team will analyze the roles of men, women, and youth in poultry production and processing and the food safety risks they face. Kunyanga noted that smallholder poultry production remains one of the key enterprises among low-income households—particularly in rural and peri-urban areas—and women and youth are currently heavily involved.

“Our preliminary data shows that women and youth possess little knowledge on safe poultry production, which makes them more exposed to foodborne pathogens and illnesses,” said Kunyanga. “The findings of this study will be used to design interventions in the poultry value chain that empower and build the capacity of women and youth in food safety through training in best practices, supporting food security, increased market access, and profitability.”

The project’s findings, as well as input from farmers, market operators, regulators, and other researchers, will be used to develop a Best Management Practices training program to help the workforce better understand microbial food safety risks and implement practices to reduce microbial pathogens at all points of the poultry value chain. The project will culminate in a pilot training program on food safety practices, including a training manual and local workshops.

“I hope that this project will lead to a significant increase in food safety awareness among poultry farmers and other stakeholders in Kenya and an eventual reduction in the prevalence of foodborne pathogen contamination along the poultry production line in Kenya in particular and globally in general,” said Onsare. “This will lead to safer food and healthier populations.”

Amanda Garris is a communications specialist with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety. The lab is one of more than 20 Innovation Labs with U.S. universities under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative led by USAID.

By Olivia Hall

Nepal’s government is promoting the production and consumption of fresh produce to alleviate food and nutritional insecurity in the country. However, inadequate food safety practices can jeopardize the intended benefits of eating more nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables. To promote the adoption of food safety practices within Nepal’s fresh produce systems, a project funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety (FSIL) recently trained more than 240 farmers and extension workers through five produce safety workshops held in produce hubs across the country.

“Food safety is an emerging issue in government policy, but stakeholders in fresh produce systems still have low awareness,” said Aditya Khanal, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Business and Education in the College of Agriculture at Tennessee State University and leader of the project Market-led food safety in Nepal: Harnessing production incentives and consumer awareness. “Awareness among stakeholders involved in fresh produce systems – such as growing, handling, and consuming the fresh produce – is highly important.”

Because they are frequently consumed raw, fruits and salad vegetables are of particular concern as carrying a risk for microbial foodborne illness. Vegetables are vulnerable to contamination with foodborne pathogens through many sources, such as contact with poor-quality contaminated water on farms or in homes, incompletely or improperly composted animal manure, and uncooked meat in markets or during meal preparation. Raising awareness among growers of the risks and promoting the adoption of recommended on-farm practices is key to preventing foodborne illness for consumers.

Workshop attendees included fresh produce growers and extension service providers – many of them women and youth – who could share their new knowledge and skills in their communities to build greater food safety capacity. Sessions in five major produce market connection hubs across the country – Itahari, Kohalpur, Bharatpur, Pokhara, and the capital city of Kathmandu – attracted a total of 244 participants.

Organized by Nepal’s Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), the workshops featured food safety specialists and food microbiologists from partner and collaborating institutions, including the Nepal Agricultural Research Council, the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, the Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Center, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development.

In each session, participants learned about the importance of food safety and were trained in Good Agriculture Practices (GAPs) that assist farmers in identifying and controlling risk factors on their farms. Applying these tools reduces the risk of contamination from microorganisms and pesticide residues during the growing, harvesting, and post-harvest handling of produce. Feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive.

“This training is a new kind,” said Rabi Dhital, who participated in the Bharatpur workshop. “Due to a lack of food safety training for vegetable and fruit producers, we’ve faced difficulty in safer production. We realized that microbial food safety matters, along with several others.”

Extension agent Anjali Shrestha, who also attended the Bharatpur training, noted the importance of increasing consumer awareness about food safety and was prepared to share what she’d learned about reducing the risk of contamination during production with farmers in her area.

“We need to be very careful while preparing the compost,” said Shrestha. “There are greater chances of the food getting unhygienic from the compost not getting well prepared or not well decomposed. So we can extend this information to our farmers.”

Ram Hari Timilsina, the Nepal lead for the project, sees the workshops as success, but not only in terms of outreach and raising food safety awareness. He views the workshops as the project’s first step in initiating a transition towards safer practices, helping to reduce foodborne illnesses, increase consumer trust in locally produced food, and boost compliance with international food safety regulations. Timilsina hopes that as participants apply and share this information in their farming communities, it will spark larger-scale change.

“They were thrilled to participate and quickly picked up a lot of knowledge,” said Timilsina, who is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology at AFU. “The majority of participants now believe that fresh produce food safety is crucial, even though they were unaware of it previously. The workshops are undoubtedly a turning point in terms of the needs of the growers.”

Timilsina and Khanal have convened a team to develop a training manual on produce safety as a resource for the country’s extension agents and farmers, and future workshops will address consumers’ food safety awareness.  In April, the project anticipates bringing public, private, and NGO stakeholders together in a workshop to map a path forward for practical policy-level interventions in Nepal.

“My hope is that the workshops we just completed and the food safety research and outreach through this project will be a milestone to initiate the rapid expansion of food safety-ensured or enhanced good agricultural and business practices in fresh produce systems,” Khanal said.

Olivia Hall is a freelance writer with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety. The lab is one of more than 20 Innovation Labs with U.S. universities under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative led by USAID.

Researchers from Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Senegal sponsored by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety (FSIL) converged at the International Association for Food Protection 17th Dubai International Food Safety Conference. The gathering of more than 3,000 experts from local, regional, and international organizations provided the team with opportunities to share their work, expand their professional network, and learn about the latest advancements in food safety.

FSIL-sponsored researchers in attendance included Shahida Akhter D.V.M., a Ph.D. fellow at Bangladesh Agricultural University; Md. Farid Dewan, a Ph.D. Fellow at Bangladesh Agricultural University and Assistant Professor at Noakhali Science and Technology University; Maroky Diedhiou, an agricultural engineer at Senegal’s National Higher School of Agriculture of Thiès; and Dr. Nkem Torimiro, an Associate Professor and research scientist at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria.

“My participation in the International Dubai Food Safety Conference was an exceptional, valuable, and enriching experience,” said Diedhiou. “The knowledge gained, contacts established, and inspiring ideas will serve as essential guides for my future actions in the field of food safety. I am grateful for the opportunity and enthusiastic about contributing further to this crucial cause.”

In her poster presentations, Diedhiou shared results on milk production safety and food safety diagnostics from FSIL’s dairy safety project in Senegal. She appreciated the opportunities it sparked for discussions about shared challenges.

“The poster presentation facilitated fruitful discussions with several participants, providing an opportunity to engage in enriching conversations about the dairy food safety situation in their

respective countries,” she said. “For instance, interacting with representatives from major milk-producing countries such as Pakistan was particularly rewarding, where crucial topics such as the influence of cattle breeds in dairy production and hygiene standards in dairy industries were discussed.”

Dr. Torimiro presented work on the risks of foodborne illness from food contact surfaces in households as part of FSIL’s food safety and nutrition project in Nigeria. She valued the conference’s emphasis on proactive food safety efforts, the power of global collaboration, and the importance of food safety culture in sustainable change.

“There were eminent speakers, engaging conversations, and networking that took place throughout the three-day event,” she said. “One of my key takeaways was that in addressing food safety, a risk-based, evidence-driven, people-centered, forward-looking approach would be more acceptable by the food producer and effective in protecting consumer health.”

For Dewan, who presented findings on consumers’ willingness to pay for safer fish and the economics of safer fish production from the FSIL Bangladesh project, the conference alerted him to the potential impact of interdisciplinary research in food safety.

“As an economist, I didn’t have much knowledge about food safety practices, but this conference broadened my outlook and inspired me to do more integrated research in the future,” he said. “This includes areas such as production, pest and disease control, storage, packaging, marketing, trade facilitation and import control, processing, management and coordination, evaluation through audit and inspection, food waste and loss, antimicrobial resistance, food system sustainability, technology, and innovation.”

Dr. Akhter, who presented on studies of microbial and chemical contamination levels in fish from the FSIL Bangladesh project, was impressed by new food safety technologies covered in the talks, including High-Pressure Processing and Cold Plasma Technology, as well as presentations on Salmonella, pesticide residue removal, and food system sustainability.

“I’m feeling fortunate for getting this wonderful opportunity,” she said. “Especially because it gave me a chance to increase the horizon of my knowledge and mingle with a range of scientists from different cultures across the world.”

Amanda Garris is a communications specialist with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety. The lab is one of more than 20 Innovation Labs with U.S. universities under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative led by USAID.

Photo Credit: Kathacharya Productions

A splash of irrigation water in a field, a rinse at the market, a thorough wash of salad vegetables before a meal: all three are moments when water contaminated with foodborne pathogens can turn nutrient-rich produce into a vehicle for foodborne illness. A nationwide study of contamination in the water sources used by growers, vendors and consumers in Nepal underscores the pressing need for policies and programs to increase the safety of water used in Nepal’s food systems.

“It is important for dietary diversity and nutrition to consume fresh produce, but raw produce poses a risk of foodborne illnesses,” said lead author Aditya Khanal, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at Tennessee State University. “Identifying barriers to fresh produce safety, such as water quality, can inform policies and investments to reduce foodborne illness.”

The study involved a nationwide sampling effort in five metropolitan areas, as well as 10 vegetable production hubs across all seven of Nepal’s provinces. In total, 394 randomly selected water samples were collected, including 156 from consumer households and 238 from growers or vendors. The presence of Escherichia coli (E. coli) was used as an indicator of contamination risk in water.

The findings painted a stark picture: overall, 59% of the samples were contaminated with E. coli. For water sources used by growers and vendors, the contamination rates varied significantly by location. The highest levels of contamination — above 80% — were found in Surkhet, Makwanpur, Palpa and Kaski, followed by Kailali (48%) and Kathmandu (45%). The lowest contamination levels (19%-27%) were present Chitwan, Banke, Sarlahi and Morang.

Levels of contamination differed among the types of water sources used by producers. Surface water sources, such as rivers, streams and kholas (small streams with stagnant or moving water) had an E. coli presence rate of 88%. The prevalence rate of E. coli in stored water and tap water were 66% and 58%, respectively. The lowest prevalence (29%) was present in hand-pump water, which is sourced from underground aquifers.

“It seems that the growers use different water sources for washing the produce, including stagnant or moving water on the surface, tap water and underground water,” said Rabin Aryal, a team member involved in the field study and co-author of the paper from Nepal’s Agriculture and Forestry University. “Notably, the tap water is quite contaminated compared to water sourced from underground.”

Consumers were found to use a variety of water sources to wash fresh produce, with 46% using water stored in tanks or containers, 39% using tap water and 15% using other sources, including pump water, water purchased from tank suppliers and bottled drinking water. Overall, consumer water supplies had a 67% prevalence rate with no significant differences by source type.

“Our data shows that water quality is one of the important challenges for food safety in Nepal,” said Khanal. “By taking action on water quality, we have a real opportunity to contribute to preventing foodborne illnesses.”

The authors suggest five priority areas for action:

1. Public and private sector investment in infrastructure to improve consumer and producer access to clean, safe water.
2. The development and adoption of water testing guidelines, food safety practices and regulations to strengthen food safety.
3. Increased education and outreach to enhance the awareness of growers, consumers, vendors and processors of the health risks associated with contaminated water.
4. Incentivization of the adoption of safer food- and water-use practices in the food supply chains.
5. Robust monitoring to enforce regulations for safer water use in food systems.

“Improving food system water quality will require cross-sectoral collaboration and coordinated efforts among government agencies, researchers, growers, vendors and consumers,” said coauthor Ram Hari Timilsina, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology at Agriculture and Forestry University. “Food safety is an emerging priority in Nepal, and we hope this data can help inform the way forward.”

This research was funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety through a project to strengthen the safety of produce in Nepal. The paper, “Contaminated Water and an Indication of Risk: Examining Microbial Contamination in the Water Used by Consumers and Commercial Growers in Fresh Produce Systems in Nepal,” was published in the March 2024 issue of the Journal of Food Protection. In addition to Khanal, Timilsina and Aryal, coauthors included Bala Sharma (Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal) and Bharat Pokharel (Tennessee State University).

Amanda Garris is a communications specialist with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety.

Dissemination of research results is a pathway to impact, and findings published in an English-language journal can reach a global audience. Publishing can be especially challenging, however, for researchers who aren’t fluent in English or are new to the peer-review process. A project funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety recently held a scientific writing workshop specifically designed to support Cambodian students in communicating their research.

“If your target audience is local, you can choose a journal that uses the local language, but the ones published in English have a broader audience, so publishing your article in a journal written in English provides you the opportunity to reach more people,” said Ellen Mendez, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Animal Sciences and Industry at Kansas State University. “It all depends on the objectives of the research and who you want to reach with the publication.”

The subject came up at the 2023 annual meeting of the International Association for Food Protection, where Mendez met with a group of Cambodian researchers collaborating on a Food Safety Innovation Lab project to strengthen produce safety in their home country.

“They were telling me that they were in the process of writing manuscripts, and that it was hard for them,” said Mendez. “Writing itself is difficult, but then to do it in a second language is even more difficult.”

The conversation inspired Mendez to propose a workshop on scientific writing for Cambodian researchers who aren’t fluent in English. Since 2019, the Food Safety Innovation Lab Cambodia project has offered a series of capacity-strengthening courses covering social science and gender research methods, statistics and whole genome sequencing. Mendez drew on her personal experience to develop the scientific writing course.

“English is also my second language,” said Mendez. “I’ve published some scientific manuscripts before, and I know that it’s not easy if you’re not familiar with it or if you don’t have someone who can help you.”

The course consisted of four sessions, three of them virtual and one held in person; roughly 20 students and researchers participated. Topics included how to write an abstract, structure a manuscript, add citations and references, and understand the peer review process, as well as how to create posters and other materials for presentations. The students were provided with resources to help with grammar, vocabulary, keyword searching and more.

“I think successful publication is one of the most rewarding achievements of my scientific pursuit,” said Malyheng Chhoeun, graduate research assistant at the Center of Excellence on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition, Royal University of Agriculture. “Once the team informed us that they were planning on conducting the scientific writing course, I was so excited for it. For young scientists and graduate students, this course helped us with professional writing skills and the process of submission and peer-review. We learned the step-by-step process from writing to publication and how to communicate findings to the reader.”

“I hope there will more courses and lectures like this for those in Cambodia who want to gain professional skills and to improve our ability to publish research for a wider audience,” she said.

Sokhom Panhavatey, a graduate student at the Institute of Technology of Cambodia, said she especially valued the chance to learn how to write manuscripts and create posters.

“I have a plan to publish my research in an international journal, but I didn’t know how to write a good manuscript or how to publish it,” she said. “After the course, I know how to do this. It was a fantastic class!”

Christina Frank is a freelance writer with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety. The Innovation Lab is one of a network of 20 such labs led by U.S. universities under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative led by USAID.

Vegetables play a key role in the Cambodian diet, but these nutrient-dense foods are also a common source of foodborne illness. Farms and informal markets, one of the main sources of produce for many Cambodians, are key points for preventing contamination with foodborne pathogens. To develop tailored outreach programs to promote the adoption of new food safety practices, researchers funded by the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety (FSIL) conducted surveys to better understand current perceptions about foodborne illness — including its health impacts and where contamination occurs — among growers and vendors working with informal vegetable markets. They identified crucial gaps in knowledge about microbial food safety risks and health impacts.

“Informal markets by definition don’t have a lot of oversight,” said Paul Ebner, professor of animal sciences at Purdue University and project co-lead principal investigator (PI), who co-authored the study with colleagues at the Center of Excellence on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification and Nutrition (CE SAIN) at Cambodia’s Royal University of Agriculture (RUA), Kansas State University and The Ohio State University.

Consisting of a loose network of vegetable farmers, collectors, distributors and vendors, the open-air markets often enforce few or no food safety standards. Ebner noted that the markets regularly have challenges — including co-mingling of fresh produce with animal-sourced foods and lack of cold storage — that can lead to contamination with bacterial pathogens. Because the produce is often eaten raw, it puts consumers at high risk of bacterial illnesses that cause diarrhea, which has particularly negative impacts on the health and nutritional status of young children. At the same time, the Cambodian government has been proactive in promoting the production and consumption of vegetables as a nutrient-dense source of food.

“So, in this project we’re looking to identify which interventions or technologies can improve food safety in the Cambodian context,” Ebner said.

Because improving food safety often involves adopting new behaviors, the researchers needed to first understand the perceptions and potential barriers to change among people growing and selling vegetables. To collect these data and strengthen local research capacity, they offered a quantitative survey development course aimed primarily at Cambodian graduate students.

“The dual purpose was to get the information that we need to create effective outreach programs, but also to give Cambodian students an experiential learning platform so they can practice how to do this in the future, or maybe even in their own graduate school projects,” Ebner explained.

The students completed surveys with 69 vegetable growers in the provinces of Battambang and Siem Reap and 31 vendors in Phnom Penh. The quantitative questionnaire asked participants about their perceptions of the importance of vegetable safety, frequency of vegetable contamination, and health impacts of consuming contaminated vegetables as well as about where vegetable contamination primarily occurs and who is most responsible for preventing it.

The majority of respondents reported being at least moderately concerned about produce food safety. However, as the researchers had hypothesized beforehand, most participants appeared to be more familiar with the risks and impact of chemical contamination, likely due to several high-profile outbreaks of foodborne illness caused by chemical contaminants and programs that address the proper use of pesticides. In contrast, they were less likely to associate microbial contamination with serious health effects, which can include severe malnutrition, organ failure or death.

“Generally, people have to understand that something is a problem and why before they are highly motivated to fix it,” Ebner said. “So, we really have to work with these different groups on bridging the gap of how things get contaminated and what the consequences are of consuming foods with microbial contaminants.”

Most respondents identified farms as the primary site of vegetable contamination, despite the risks of cross-contamination with uncooked meat at informal markets. The study also indicated that respondents generally believed that food safety could be improved at different stages of growing and selling vegetables.

“That’s good news, because one of the biggest barriers to implementing food safety practices is the belief that you can’t do it, or you don’t know how,” Ebner said.

Members of FSIL’s Cambodia project are now creating food safety curricula that strategically target gaps in knowledge or motivation that were identified in the different groups, for example raising awareness of market-based contamination risks among vendors and tapping into growers’ existing strong feelings of personal responsibility for preventing contamination.

“This education programming will incorporate findings from this survey, our behavior theory research and gender analyses and can be delivered well beyond the project,” Ebner said.

The paper, Describing Food Safety Perceptions among Growers and Vendors in Cambodian Informal Vegetable Markets, was published September 20, 2023, in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. In addition to Ebner, coauthors included Sabrina Mosimann (Purdue University), Keorimy Ouk (CE SAIN/RUA), Nora M. Bello (The Ohio State University), Malyheng Chhoeun (CE SAIN/RUA), Leah Thompson (Purdue University), Jessie Vipham (Kansas State University) and Lyda Hok (CE SAIN/RUA).

Olivia Hall is a freelance writer with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety (FSIL). The lab is one of more than 20 Innovation Labs with U.S. universities under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative led by USAID.

For graduate students specializing in food safety, their thesis work typically revolves around a specific product, value chain or pathogen. Attending international conferences is a valuable way for young scholars to gain a more comprehensive understanding of global food safety challenges and explore cutting-edge approaches. To provide this opportunity for international students working on FSIL projects, FSIL sponsored students from Cambodia, Nepal and Kenya to attend the 2023 annual International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) conference in Toronto, Canada, from July 16-19.

The meeting, which attracted more than 3,200 of the top industry, academic and governmental food safety professionals from six continents, was an opportunity for the students to attend research talks and establish connections with fellow researchers and industry representatives. The FSIL-sponsored students in attendance included Purity Njoki, a graduate student at Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI); Purushottam Dhungana, from Pokhara, Nepal, currently pursuing a master’s degree in agriculture with a concentration in agribusiness at Tennessee State University; and Chhoeun Malyheng, a master’s student at the Royal University of Agriculture in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia.

“It was a true pleasure to meet the graduate students funded by FSIL,” said Randy Worobo, associate director of FSIL and professor of food science at Cornell University. “Their enthusiasm to absorb as much food safety research as possible at IAFP and the pride they had exhibiting their research at the most renowned food safety meeting was impressive.”

Dhungana, who is interested in applied economics fields such as behavioral economics, experimental economics and international development, is involved in an FSIL project in Nepal focused on the food safety economics of fresh produce. He credited the experience with giving him a broader understanding of the major food safety

challenges, priorities and policies across different regions of the world and perspective on how to prioritize research ideas to address food safety challenges.

“The IAFP conference was great exposure for me,” said Dhungana. “I got to meet people from diverse backgrounds — academia, industry, government, intergovernmental organizations and, more importantly, from different parts of the world. I learned about different approaches to food safety risk assessment, methodologies for estimating the cost of foodborne illnesses and the utilization of machine learning models and artificial intelligence in predicting food product quality — areas that align with my interest and long-standing areas of curiosity.”

Njoki is involved with a project called Chakula Salama, which is working to strengthen food safety on smallholder poultry farms in Kenya. She particularly enjoyed the chance to interact with students from all over the world working on food safety-related projects.

“I also got a chance to learn new field and lab methods of isolating Campylobacter and Salmonella, which are the key organisms that I am working on,” she said. “Traveling to Canada also changed my way of thinking and my approach to different things. I also improved my presentation skills through learning from the IAFP presenters, which gave me new ideas on what to do for my master’s degree.”

For Chhoeun, who has worked on produce safety in Cambodia, IAFP was her first international conference outside her home country. She seized the opportunity to learn about the latest technologies and connect with others dedicated to strengthening food safety.

“This conference allowed me to truly strengthen my professional skills,” Chhoeun said. “During the poster presentations, I had an opportunity to talk with researchers person-to-person about their projects, and these experiences have helped me to think more critically as well as enhanced my skillset with new perspectives and knowledge.”

Haley Oliver, FSIL director, professor of food science and assistant dean of agriculture online programs at Purdue University, noted that graduate students make significant contributions to FSIL projects, and the decision to support their attendance at the conference is part of a long-term strategy to strengthen global research capacity.

“By supporting their professional development, we can build a brighter future for food safety,” she said. “At the IAFP conference, they had the opportunity to learn the latest in cutting-edge food safety technology and practices, experience the depth and breadth of global food safety research, and network with researchers and private companies. It was a pleasure to meet these young scholars in person and witness their passion for building safer food systems.”

Christina Frank is a freelance writer with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety (FSIL). The lab is one of more than 20 Innovation Labs with U.S. universities under Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative led by USAID.