The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) at the University of California has made awards totalling US$2.1m to 12 food safety research projects.
The projects will begin in January 2012 and are designed to help reduce the food safety risks associated with growing and harvesting fresh produce.
A number of them will focus on E coli and salmonella in particular.
Robert Whitaker, the chairman of the CPS's technical committee, said: "The scope and quality of this year's awardees is truly remarkable. These new programmes really complement research from our first three years at CPS and provide depth from which our stakeholders can develop science-based food safety programmes."
To date, CPS has funded 54 projects valued at US$9.2m in tandem with its group of public and private research partners from the states of California, Florida and Washington.
