HYANNIS – The state has announced $200,000 in grants to 24 Massachusetts farms, including nine on the Cape, to install practices that improve food safety within their operations.
The Agricultural Food Safety Improvement Program (AFSIP) is a competitive grant program that allows agricultural operations to address food safety upgrades on their farms enabling the operations to meet buyer demands, increase consumption of local food, as well as protect public health by reducing food safety risks.
“Upgrading existing farm infrastructure is important for the Commonwealth’s agricultural businesses to maintain high quality, locally produced products in a safe, sustainable way,” said Governor Charlie Baker.
This round of grant funding has a focus on assisting commercial oyster farmers with meeting the Department of Marine Fisheries and the Department of Public Health (DPH) Vibrio Control Program.
Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp) is a human pathogen known to cause foodborne illnesses from the consumption of raw oysters.
In an effort to address these foodborne illnesses the Vp Control Plan requires strict harvesting controls for oysters.
Examples of awards to aquaculture operations to help meet these requirements include commercial coolers, cold storage, and ice machines all working towards reducing the temperature of oysters at harvest and continued cooling of oysters thereafter.
The following local farms are receiving grants through the AFSIP program and it totals $58,809.
Awardee | Municipality | Project Type | Award |
Detail Fish | Provincetown | Ice Machine; Insulated Vat | $4,424 |
East Bay Oyster Farm, Inc. | Plymouth | Three (3) Insulated Vats | $1,069 |
East Dennis Oyster Farm | Dennis | Ice Machine; Insulated Vat; Refrigeration | $3,512 |
Edwards, Simon | Nantucket | Ice Machine | $3,502 |
Pilgrim Bobby D’s Oyster Farm, Inc. | Plymouth | Ice Machine | $3,147 |
Warren’s Cove Oyster Co. | Plymouth | Walk-in Cooler | $20,000 |
Wellfleet Aquafarm | Wellfleet | Ice Machine; Two (2) Insulated Vats | $5,436 |
Wellfleet’s Finest Oyster Company | Wellfleet | Ice Machine; Insulated Vat | $4,657 |
WIYO | Wellfleet | Ice Machine; (4) Insulated Vats; Walk-in | $13,062 |