![]() ![]() ![]() “My work is more impactful if I can address real-world stakeholder issues and leverage what already has been done,” Kinchla says.Īndrew Chamberlin, UVM Extension agricultural engineering technician, explains that bacteria and grime have the potential to accumulate if farmers don’t know how best to spin the greens and clean the machines. The UMass Amherst team is building on work at the University of Vermont Extension, where the agricultural engineering program has been conducting workshops and creating posters for farmers on how to follow a hygienic design to convert washing machines into greens spinners and use them safely. The Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety, led by the University of Vermont, promotes food safety education and technical support to small- and medium-size producers and processors in the northeast region. Department of Agriculture to study and address the microbial safety risks of processing leafy greens in washing machines. Kinchla, a co-director of the USDA-funded Northeast Center to Advance Food Safety, and UMass Amherst food science colleagues Lynne McLandsborough and Matthew Moore have received a $71,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and the U.S. “There are no regulations against this, but there is no data right now on the risk.” “This has been a common practice among small producers of greens,” says Amanda Kinchla, a UMass Amherst extension associate professor of food science. This discovery by farmers offered a way to automate the drying process without investing in a prohibitively expensive, commercial-grade spinner.Īn important question lingers about this practice, which University of Massachusetts Amherst food scientists hope to answer: Is it safe? The spin cycle of a retrofitted washing machine wicks the water off the greens to dry and keep them fresher longer. Some of the nearly 1,000 small farmers in New England who grow leafy greens use a creative, efficient and cost-effective method of drying the fresh veggies after a triple dip in water: a conventional home washing machine. ![]()
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