Buyers' Reluctance Toward USDA GAP Audit Programs: Barriers and How to Address Them

The U.S. experiences about 48 million foodborne illnesses yearly, mostly from multistate microbial contamination of fresh produce, particularly raw leafy vegetables. To minimize such outbreak risks, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) collaborated with buyers and other stakeholders to develop voluntary fee-for-service produce safety audit programs for fresh fruits and vegetables. These include USDA GAP&GHP, USDA Harmonized GAP, USDA GroupGAP, and USDA Harmonized GAP Plus+. The audit schemes were aligned with regulatory and prevailing food safety requirements in the fresh produce industry for wider buyer acceptance. However, many buyers have been reluctant to accept the GAPs audit programs for unexplored reasons. We surveyed and interviewed buyers and service providers to understand this hesitancy and how it could be addressed. Buyers’ hesitancy stems from various factors: USDA GAPs audit schemes were seen as not stringent enough, lacking GFSI benchmarking, and not meeting some buyers’ food safety needs. Other issues included governance barriers, complicated naming, unclear communication on how the GAPs standards differ from private standards like GLOBAL G.A.P., lack of supplier requests, information deficits, audit response time, and distrust in audit quality. Suggestions for improved buyer acceptance included the USDA working with large produce retailers to strengthen their GAPs standards.