Objectives

Develop a farm-to-consumer hazard transmission model to facilitate a systems approach to identifying environment appropriate, socially acceptable and cost-effective interventions.

Improve GIS tools and approaches to reduce produce microbial food safety hazard introduction from agricultural water, environmental and animal sources at the pre-harvest level.

Assemble a library of existing models and modelling tools applicable to the produce industry, and review these tools with respect to the intended purpose, utility (pros and cons) and current usage, to facilitate computer enabled food safety decision making.

Develop and validate simulation models for (i) packing houses, (ii) processing plants and (iii) retailers to facilitate use of in silico tools to optimize pathogen sampling plans and control strategies.