Produce Safety
This item should never be stored directly on the ground.
What is produce?
Vendors should arrive at the market before this happens.
What is before the market opens to customers?
This item provides shade and helps protect produce from direct sunlight and heat.
What is a canopy/tent?
Customers should be able to do this easily when walking through your booth.
What is move safely?
This item helps keep produce cold at the farmers market.
What is ice/a cooler?
This is the most important thing vendors can do before handling produce.
What is washing your hands?
This information should always be clearly visible to customers at your booth.
What are prices/product labels?
Using baskets, crates, and shelves to raise produce higher creates this important visual effect for customers.
What is height/visual appeal?
Boxes, coolers, and supplies should never block this area of the booth.
What is customer walkway/pahtway?
Cut fruit and leafy greens should be kept at or below this temperature.
What is 41°F?
Cut melons, leafy greens, and cut tomatoes should be kept out of this temperature range.
What is the temperature danger zone (41-135F)?
Many farmers markets require vendors to keep produce elevated at least this far off the ground.
What is approximately 6 inches?
Extra boxes, personal items, and supplies should be kept in this location during market hours.
What is hidden neatly behind or under the booth/table?
This booth setup mistake can cause customers to skip your booth because they feel crowded or trapped.
What is poor customer flow/cluttered layout?
This temperature range is known as the "danger zone" where bacteria grow quickly.
What is 41°F–135°F?
A customer sneezes directly onto uncovered produce samples. What should the vendor do immediately?
What is discard the contaminated samples and clean/sanitize the area before serving more?
If a vendor wants to offer food samples, they must first follow these two important things.
What are market rules and food safety guidelines?
A well-designed booth should allow customers to do these three things easily.
What are see products, reach products, and move through the booth safely?
Signs and prices should be placed where customers can do this without asking the vendor repeatedly.
What is easily see/read them?
These three produce items are especially important to keep cold once cut or harvested.
What are cut melons, leafy greens, and tomatoes?
This type of contamination happens when harmful bacteria are transferred from dirty hands, surfaces, money, or raw products onto fresh produce.
What is cross-contamination?
A vendor is caught selling produce they did not grow at a "grower-only" farmers market. This rule violation could result in this consequence.
What is being removed, suspended, or banned from the market?
A vendor has beautiful produce but customers keep walking past the booth. The display is overcrowded, prices are hard to see, and tables block customer flow. What booth setup principle is MOST likely missing?
What is good customer flow and clear visual organization?
A booth has excellent produce and prices, but customers hesitate to stop because the tables are arranged in a straight wall with not entrance space. What customer flow problem does this create?
What is poor accessibility or no inviting entry point into the booth?
A vendor notices their cooler temperature has risen above safe levels during a hot summer market. What should they do FIRST to protect produce safety?
What is add ice/move produce to proper refrigeration and check product temperatures immediately?