The US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA-AMS) has merged its fresh and processed products divisions which carry out grading, standardisation and auditing services for the organisation.
The new Specialty Crops Inspection (SCI) division is designed to offer better inspection services for fruits and vegetables sold on the US market, according to a press release from USDA.
SCI will offer voluntary, audit-based inspection programmes – utilising Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Handling Practices (GHP).
It will also perform uniform, quality grading services based on the US standards for fresh, frozen and processed products.
USDA said the new division is part of its continued effort to operate as efficiently as possible to remain a good value to its customers.
“Through the merger, we were able to combine several administrative functions and systems such as billing, finance, certification, training, quality management and customer service,” the organisation said. “This reduced redundancy without losing functionality.”
In the future, all grading and auditing employees will be cross-trained so that they can conduct inspections of both fresh and processed products.
“By sharing knowledge throughout our workforce like this, the new division will be more agile and responsive to our customers’ needs,” USDA noted.
“All of our changes are designed to capitalize on the strengths that existed in both branches and will allow us to provide improved service to the country’s produce growers, producers and consumers.”
