Draft Cover Letter for Microbial Food Safety Survey

United States Department of Agriculture

National Agricultural Statistics Service

September XX, 2015

Dear Respondent,

The Post-Harvest Microbial Food Safety Practices Survey seeks to assess the levels of food safety awareness, sanitation and post-harvest practices used by various operators including canners, chippers, dehydrators, fresh cut processors, packers, juicers, peelers, picklers and more.

Your responses could:

• Document and give credit to your industry for practices that are already in place

• Provide a benchmark of practices prior to implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act for comparison purposes

• Guide research and training efforts

• Help ensure that policymakers, organizations and businesses have up-to-date facts to make informed decisions that could impact your operations

Summarized data from the Post-Harvest Microbial Food Safety Practices Survey will be provided to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service for further analysis. The National Agricultural Statistics Service is committed to confidentiality and security. As required by Federal law, survey and census responses are completely confidential. We safeguard the privacy of all respondents, ensuring that no individual operation or producer can be identified.

Please respond to the survey promptly in either of the following ways:

• Online at www.agcensus.usda.gov beginning September XX, 2015. Responding online is the easiest, fastest and safest way to complete your questionnaire and it saves taxpayer dollars too. All you need is the identification number on the enclosed form to begin.

• By mail. Complete the enclosed form and mail it back in the return envelope provided.

Please respond by January XX 2016. For more information about the Post-Harvest Microbial Food Safety Practices Survey, visit http://www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys/index.asp If you have questions, call (888) 424-7828.

Thank you in advance for your participation in the Post-Harvest Microbial Food Safety Practices Survey

Sincerely,

Appropriate person’s name

Job title, National Agricultural Statistics Service

United States Department of Agriculture

Enclosures

USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.