Food Safety On and Off-Farm

From the Farmer's Market Manager annual meeting. Q&A with County of Sonoma Environmental Health about farm markets during shelter in place. Farmer's Markets are considered essential but are not to be treated as events at this time. Treat them as a grocery shopping trip: get what you came for and leave.

• Limit sale to whole food - no food preparation at booths
• Processed food must be prepared in a commissary kitchen before market
• Increase distance between booths
• Hand sanitizer and washing stations should be available throughout the market
• Recommend that farmers handle the food
• Remove anything that makes markets an “event”
• No customer restrooms (customers are not lingering, they are to make their purchases and leave)
• No sampling
• Does food have to be brought to market in pre-packaged containers?
  There is to be no portioning at the farmers market; all portioned beforehand
• Do coffee booths count as food prep?
  Want to discourage things that people are going to be touching or helping themselves e.g. no communal creamer
• Temp Food Facility food prep:
  Virus can transfer through screens so they should all be doing pre-prepared items and not making them on site
  All food needs to be pre-packaged at markets
• Restrooms:
  Vendors still need restroom but we don’t want them overwhelmed with customers
  Restroom hand washing should not be used as a primary handwashing source
• Craft booths:
  Most craft booths have taken out aside from soap and crafts like that
• Sanitizing solution:
  100 ppm bleach sanitizing solution - a capful for gallon OR a testing strip that will tell you when you reach 100 ppm