Safety and Practice for Organic Food

Debabrata Biswas is an Associate Professor of Food Safety in the Department of Animal Sciences (ANSC) and Center for Food Safety and Security Systems (CFS3) at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA. As a food safety specialist, he has committed to develop crosscutting research programs in the food safety area. He serves as editorial board member or reviewer for more than 40 journals and has published more than 70 peer review manuscripts and contributed book chapters for 12 published books. He has also mentored and trained many graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and younger scientists and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses related to food safety and gut microbiomes. He has delivered more than 40 invited talks and organized 4 international symposia in the area of food safety. Shirley A. Micallef is an Associate Professor in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture (PSLA) and CFS3 at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA. She conducts research related to specialty crops, with emphasis on the microbial ecology of the crop agricultural environment, environmental reservoirs of enteric pathogens, impact of cropping practices on enteric pathogen dispersal and survival, microbiomes of fruit and vegetables, and Salmonella interactions with plants. She has been awarded several federal and state-supported grants for her innovative research in fruit and vegetable food safety, has published over 40 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and has organized symposia and delivered several talks on human pathogen-plant interactions. She currently sits on the Editorial Board of Applied and Environmental Microbiology and Journal of Food Protection. She also teaches courses related to food safety and agricultural microbiology at the University of Maryland.

Organic Food Products, Diverse Production Practices, and Policies 1. The Growing Market of Organic Foods: Impact on the US and Global Economy 2. Organic Farming Practices: Integrated Culture Versus Monoculture 3. Governmental Policies and Regulations including FSMA on Organic Farming in the United States and Around the Globe 4. Major Issues and Limitations in Organic Farming in the US

Quality and Safety Concerns of Organic Food 5. A Nutritional Perspective: Importance of Organic Foods Over Conventional Counterparts 6. Listed Foodborne Disease Outbreaks Associated with Organic Foods: Animal and Plant Products 7. Food Safety Risks and Issues Associated with Farming and Handling Practices for Organic Certified Fresh Produce 8. Proper Farm Management Strategies for Safer Organic Animal farming practice 9. Effective farm management strategies for organic produce and plant food production 10. Alternatives to pest and disease control in pre-harvest, and washing and processing in post-harvest levels for organic produce

Recommendations and intervention for Improving Safety and Sustainable Organic Food 11. The Plant Microbiome: Diversity, Dynamics and Role in Food Safety 12. Control strategies for post-harvest microbiological safety of produce during processing, marketing and quality measures 13. Control strategy for post-harvest microbiological safety of animal products during processing, marketing and quality measures 14. Future of organic farming: bringing technological marvels to the field 15. Pectin as an alternative feed additive and effects on microbiota 16. The impact of grower training on food safety outcomes 17. Acceptable alternatives growth promoters for organic farm animal production 18. Application of bacteriophages in organic farm animal production 19. Bio-control for foodborne zoonotic pathogens in animal reservoirs and food products