Fresh Express Contributes $500K to Fund Important Food Safety Research

May 9, 2022, Orlando, Florida- Value-added salad leader Fresh Express announced today it has contributed $500,000 to Center for Produce Safety (CPS) to fund science-based food safety research for the fresh produce industry.  According to Fresh Express President John P. Olivo, the donation was motivated by the company’s foundational commitment to superior food safety and the development of advanced strategies and technologies to ensure a consistently safe food supply and to protect public health.   

According to Olivo, food safety excellence is an embedded value throughout the Fresh Express network. “Everything we do is dedicated first and foremost to ensuring that our products are safe and that the trust consumers place in us to deliver highest quality, food-safe products is earned – each and every day,” he said.

Fresh Express has a long history of investment aimed toward bringing together independent experts and collaborators in the joint pursuit of preventing foodborne illness.  In 2008, the company sponsored the industry’s first Fresh Produce Safety Research Summit and as recently as 2019 formed the Blue Ribbon Panel on the Prevention of Cyclospora in Fresh Produce.  

Fresh Express contributed its first $500,000 to CPS in 2015, and this year’s donation will help finance the Center’s research projects over the next five years.  

“It’s critical that the fresh produce industry continually advance mitigation strategies that are grounded in science to protect public health,” Olivo said, “and CPS is leading that research mission.”

About Fresh Express

Fresh Express^®is a brand leader in Value Added Salads and is dedicated to providing consumers with healthy, convenient ready-to-eat salads, leafy greens, vegetables and fruits. Fresh Express fresh salads come in more than 100 different varieties offering exciting new flavors and convenient new ways to meet daily nutritional  requirements. More than 14 million consumers each week enjoy healthy, convenient ready-to-eat Fresh Express salads, leafy greens and fresh produce items. For more information, visit www.FreshExpress.com. 

About Center for Produce Safety

The 501(c)(3) nonprofit Center for Produce Safety (CPS) focuses exclusively on funding science, finding solutions and fueling change in fresh produce food safety. CPS funds credible, independent research worldwide, then transfers that knowledge and tools to industry and other stakeholder. For more information, visit www.centerforproducesafety.org.