Center for Produce Safety Visits WEST

Jan. 31, 2020
Center for Produce Safety group standing outside the WEST center

On January 29, 2020, representatives from the Center for Produce Safety in California visited the WEST Center along with other University of Arizona sites.

The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) is a nonprofit collaborative partnership that "leverages the combined expertise of industry, government and the scientific and academic communities to focus on providing research needed to continually enhance food safety."  The organization brings together leaders from industry, government, and the scientific and academic communities to identify the most pressing research needs and fund the most promising investigations to advance real-world solutions to food safety concerns.

In the 11 years since its inception, CPS has compiled an impressive body of work. It has awarded over $29 million and funded 172 one- to two-year research projects at 43 research institutions. It has also expanded from a public-private partnership to being international in scope, sponsoring projects in five countries around the globe. 

In 2019, CPS funded 15 research projects in 6 states, from Arizona to New York. Impressively, 3 of the 15 projects awarded funding will be undertaken by University of Arizona faculty.

The visit to WEST Center in January was part of a tour to meet with researchers with ongoing CPS-funded projects.  At WEST, one CPS-funded study is in its second year of investigation.  Entitled "Development of a model to predict the impact of sediments on microbial irrigation water quality," this research project is led by Dr. Charles Gerba with involvement by PhD student Erfan Tousi and others at WEST Center.

For more information about CPS-funded projects, visit the CPS Awards List page.

For more information about the CPS-funded project at WEST Center, see the WEST news item, WEST Study Investigates Pathogen Movement in Irrigation Waterways, and the poster below.