Visual Educational Resources to Improve Produce Safety Knowledge for Non-English Speaking Farm Workers in the U.S.: A Review

The United States (U.S.) produces 50% of its total fresh fruits and vegetables for human consumption. Labor, one of the key inputs to fresh produce production, is required to conduct field activities such as planting and harvesting. To meet this demand of the U.S., the produce industry depends significantly on immigrant workers, who make up almost 70% of the workforce of the world’s third-largest fresh produce sector. Nevertheless, fresh produce is also implicated in foodborne outbreaks. One of the factors limiting effective food safety implementation on farms is the lack of education and training. Specific to non-English-speaking immigrant workers, this challenge presents a significant obstacle in training the farm workforce and maintaining safety standards in this industry. This article discusses key issues of food safety practices within the fresh produce industry that require improved training of farm workers, particularly focusing on the development of needs-based visual educational resources, such as videos and posters, for non-English-speaking immigrant growers. It also discusses addressing those gaps by delivering tailored educational resources and the potential impact on improved transfer of knowledge.