Water Testing Requirements For Farmers Change With New Food Safety Law

Water testing lab. (Credit: Phil Tocco / MSU Extension)

Many preventive measures implemented under the Food Safety Modernization Act become final in 2015 and 2016. The bill, passed in 2011, is meant to make preventing contamination of America’s food supply a priority over responding to it.

Impacts of that goal include updates to water testing requirements for farmers. But making the switch can be difficult for some, especially if they rely on outside labs to do testing, or if they’re unsure what to consider before sending water samples off for analysis.

To help with that, experts at Michigan State University Extension have put together a short list of questions that farmers should ask labs as they get ready for the switch. These include checking how the labs test for E. Coli, as well as considering how well they are equipped to test surface water.

For the full list of questions, see this post from the Extension. More on the Food Safety Modernization Act is available here.

Top image: Water testing lab. (Credit: Phil Tocco / MSU Extension)