Are you exempt from the Produce Safety Rule?

There are a few ways that growers may be exempt from the Produce Safety Rule:

  1. Operation only grows produce that is rarely consumed raw:
    • asparagus, black beans, great Northern beans, kidney beans, lima beans, navy beans, pinto beans, beets, garden (roots and tops) beets, sugar beets, cashews, sour cherries, chickpeas, cocoa beans, coffee beans, collards, sweet corn, cranberries, dates, dill (seeds and weed), eggplants, figs, ginger, hazelnuts, horseradish, lentils, okra, peanuts, pecans, peppermint, potatoes, pumpkins, mature southern field peas (such as black-eyed peas, cowpeas, crowder peas, purple hull peas, sea island peas, silver peas, and speckled peas), winter squash, sweet potatoes, and water chestnuts.
  2. Produce grown is used only for personal consumption or produced for consumption on the farm or another farm under the same management.
  3. Produce grown receives commercial processing that adequately reduces the presence of microorganisms of public health significance.
  4. During the previous 3-year period your average of all produce sales was less than $25,000 (on a rolling basis) adjusted for inflation using 2018 as the baseline year for calculating the adjustment.

 

Qualified Exemption

Both of the following requirements must be met.

  1. During the previous 3-year period, annual food* sales are less than $500,000 adjusted for inflation, and the amount of sales sold to qualified end-users exceeded the amount sold to all other buyers.

*The term “food” means (1) articles used for food or drink for man or other animals, (2) chewing gum, and (3) articles used for components of any such article.

AND

  1. You sell more than 50% of your annual food sales to qualified end-users (consumer of the food and/or a restaurant or retail food establishment) located in South Carolina or within the same Indian Reservation or within 275 miles of your farm.

 

Click here to follow our quick self-assessment to find out if you are exempt!


Click here to Apply for Exemption