Updated: September 10, 2026
By Carol Allen

September is National Food Safety Education Month

By Carol Allen, Agent Associate in Food Safety

Every month should be food safety month, but the FDA recognizes September as the month to focus on food safety education. The Maryland Food Safety Network works year ‘round to keep food safety in the minds of producers. Some of us specialize in consumer food safety as well. The year 2026 has been an especially notable time where food safety has made the national news for months.

Alt text: Bilingual food safety posters reminding workers to wear clean clothes, wash hands, and avoid jewelry before work, illustrated with farm workers holding up clean hands.
Fig 1. Examples of downloadable resources to help remind workers to come to work with clean cloths, hand and not to wear jewelry in both English (left) and Spanish (right) 

Perhaps in the minds of both farmers and consumers, how can this be prevented in the future? For farmers, consider attending a Produce Safety Rule training (held in the winter months) and or a Good Agricultural Practices training (held monthly both virtual and in-person). Implementing produce safety practices on the farm reduces the risk of human pathogen contamination on fresh produce. Produce safety education for the producer is often no-or-low cost and is provided by the University of Maryland under the auspices of the Maryland Department of Agriculture Food Quality Assurance Program.

For consumers, this web page (https://www.fda.gov/food/consumers/food-safety-education-month#nfsemresources) is full of resources.

The University of Maryland Extension is holding a no-cost webinar series, Let’s Make Every Bite Safe, on Thursday’s in September from 7 pm – 8 pm. Tune-in online (go.umd.edu/foodsafetymonth2026) to listen, ask questions, and learn more about the food you eat and how to keep it safe.

If education is key for consumers and producers, it is also vital to keep the workers' skills sharp throughout the season. Include produce safety in the morning huddles. Move around and change out reminder signs to keep the workers alert. For free downloadable resources in both English and Spanish visited the Growing Safe Produce web platform (https://pci.iica.int/). Platform also has bilingual videos and interactive web applications.

This article appears in September 2026, Volume 17, Issue 8 of the Vegetable and Fruit News

Vegetable & Fruit News is a research-based publication for the commercial vegetable and fruit industry available electronically from April through October.  Published by the University of Maryland Extension Agriculture and Food Systems team.

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