We use data from a survey of leafy green and tomato growers in the Mid-Atlantic region to investigate the prevalence and cost of produce safety practices required under the Produce Rule of the Food Safety Modernization Act. Majorities of our respondents currently employ most of the food safety practices that will be required under the Produce Rule. But the Produce Rule will nevertheless require changes on the part of some growers. We find that farm size has a statistically and quantitatively negligible relationship with the use of most produce safety practices except for the sampling and testing of water, soil amendments, and product samples. Contrary to the theoretical literature suggesting that traceability increases incentives to take precautionary measures, we find little evidence that the use of produce safety practices is correlated with any marketing channel. We do find that all of these practices exhibit substantial increasing returns to scale, implying that the burden of complying with the provisions of the Produce Rule is much lower for large operations than small ones.

From May to November most romaine lettuce shipments in the United States come from California’s Central Coast region, whereas from December to April most come from the Yuma, Arizona, region. During 2017–2018, the 3 outbreaks of Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 in US romaine lettuce all occurred at the tail end of a region’s production season. During the fall 2018 outbreak, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended that suppliers begin labeling romaine packaging so that consumers can identify the product’s harvest region. We used publicly available data to show that labels may not avert many illnesses in future outbreaks but may reduce suppliers’ financial losses and reduce food loss. Market data available during both 2018 outbreak investigations showed that there was no romaine production from one of the 2 regions when the first illness onset occurred. That is, at the beginning of an outbreak investigation, market data may allow the FDA to quickly rule out an entire production region as a source of contamination.

Evidence-based policies that effectively address adverse public health trends, including the increasing burden of diet-related disease and food insecurity, require quality and comprehensive data. For food and nutrition policy, that means data on household and individual food choices and the many factors influencing food demand, including income, food assistance program participation, food security status, and the local food environment. To meet this data need, the USDA sponsored the National Household Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey (FoodAPS), an innovative survey that collected nationally-representative data on household food purchases and acquisitions, including from low-income households and households participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). To further enable and enrich analysis, the household survey data were linked to SNAP administrative records, USDA nutrient data, and geographic information related to the local food environment. This article provides a thorough overview of FoodAPS, including the rationale for the survey, recent research findings and insights on American diet quality, food assistance programs, and food environment, as well as the challenges encountered from developing, collecting, and processing the data.

Dollar stores have rapidly expanded their food offerings in recent years. These foods tend to be higher in calories and lower in nutrients, raising public health concerns, especially in rural and low-income areas where food-access challenges are often greatest. However, there is limited empirical evidence evaluating the impact of this expansion on household food purchases on a national scale. Using data from a yearly, nationally representative panel of approximately 50 000 households, we estimated the share of food purchases from 2008 to 2020 by store type and evaluated the role of dollar stores as food retailers in the United States. We found that dollar stores were the fastest-growing food retailers by household expenditure share (increasing by 89.7%), with rural growth outpacing growth elsewhere (increasing by 102.9%). Though dollar stores still represent a small share of national household food purchases (2.1% in 2020), they play an increasingly prominent role in food-at-home purchases for certain disadvantaged and rural communities. Understanding the quality of the foods they offer and how this may affect diet-related health outcomes is warranted. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print January 19, 2023:e1–e6. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.307193 )

Common pool resources often face overexploitation, but collective action can counteract that tendency. We investigate collective investment in reputation for produce food safety, a common pool resource because of limited branding and traceability, by U.S. commodity organizations. We use a unique dataset constructed with data from U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and industry to provide novel evidence on collective investment in common pool resources. Notably, only large shocks to reputation such as foodborne disease outbreaks resulting in hospitalization increase the likelihood of food safety guideline adoption. Adoption of food safety guidelines by government‐backed organizations results in improvements in some food safety outcomes.