Pa. Farmer's Market Regulations Cleaned Up

Updated food safety rules for farmers markets are working in Pennsylvania

By Melissa Daniels | PA Independent HARRISBURG — Statewide food safety regulations for farmers markets are working. But that wasn’t the case initially. The new rules, which seemingly called for expensive fixes and equipment buys, worried farmers and market managers. But those burdens aren’t true to the law, says a new Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic report that examined the 2010 regulations, referred to as Chapter 57 of Act 106. Advocacy group Keep Food Legal commissioned the report, which concluded Pennsylvania’s laws offer a favorable model for ensuring market products are safe. Food law instructor Emily Broad Leib, one author of the study, said some local health inspectors were “overzealous” when the law was first applied. Horror …

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People in Our Neighborhood

Meet Garry Ritter, Health Inspector

Ritter is the man in charge of keeping local food service businesses up to code and keeping the people safe.

Where do you live? Emmaus What is your occupation/title? Health Officer How did you become interested in the food industry? "Actually, my interests were primarily in an environmental field of practice. With food safety being regulated at the local level by public health departments, an environmental health career fit me at the time as I also had experience as a restaurant manager." What is your educational background? Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science, Thiel College What do you believe to be the most important facet of your job? "Educating facility operators and food handlers to apply food safety practices in their daily food preparation." Have you had any interesting encounters during your time as a health inspector? "Most of the…

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Melons at Emmaus Stores Should Be Safe

Local grocery chains say their produce is not linked to the listeria outbreak

Emmaus Patch shoppers shouldn't need to worry about the produce in major grocery chains even as Pennsylvania this week documented its first case connected to the nationwide listeria outbreak. Both Giant Food Stores and Weis Markets say cantaloupe that they sell are not from the batch of tainted fruit that has sickened more than 100 people in 25 states. The outbreak was identified Sept. 14 and, since then, officials know some of the tainted cantaloupes from Jensen Farms in Colorado were shipped to Pennsylvania, but they could not specify where the produce went. Giant has posted a notice on its website stating, "The cantaloupe for sale in our stores is NOT involved in the recent cantaloupe recall." Weis says their melons recently came from …

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