Food Safety Certification for Specialty Crops Program

FSCSC provides direct financial assistance to eligible specialty crop operations that incurred expenses related to food safety certification in calendar years 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

Specialty crop operations incur significant costs to comply with market-driven food safety certification requirements each year with little opportunity to recover the increased costs. FSCSC provides assistance to eligible specialty crop operations that incurred eligible on-farm food safety program expenses related to obtaining or renewing a food safety certification. To be eligible for assistance, the specialty crop operation must have obtained a 2022 food safety certification between June 21, 2022, and December 31, 2022, a 2023 food safety certification at any time during the 2023 calendar year, a 2024 food safety certification between June 26, 2024, and December 31, 2024, and a 2025 food safety certification at any time during the 2025 calendar year. To be eligible for FSCSC for 2022 and 2023, a specialty crop operation must qualify as a very small or small business, meaning their average annual monetary value of specialty crops sold during the 3-year period preceding the program year was not more than $500,000. To be eligible for FSCSC for 2024 and 2025, a specialty crop operation must qualify as a small or medium size business, meaning their average annual monetary value of specialty crops sold during the 3-year period preceding the program year was not more than $1,000,000. Eligible expenses include developing a food safety plan for first-time food safety certification, maintaining or updating an existing food safety plan, food safety certification, certification upload fees, microbiological testing, and training.

For 2022 and 2023, applicants must qualify as a small or very small business to be eligible. "Small business" means a farm that had an average annual monetary value of specialty crops sold during the 3-year period preceding the program year of more than $250,000 but not more than $500,000. "Very small business" means a farm that had an average annual monetary value of specialty crops sold during the 3-year period preceding the program year of no more than $250,000. For 2024 and 2025, applicants must qualify as a small or medium size business to be eligible. "Small business" means a farm that had an average annual monetary value of specialty crops sold during the 3-year period preceding the program year of not more than $500,000. "Medium size business" means a farm that had an average annual monetary value of specialty crops sold during the 3-year period preceding the program year of $500,001 but no more than $1,000,000. An applicant must also be a citizen of the United States; resident alien; partnership of citizens of the United States; corporation, limited liability company, or other organizational structure organized under State law; Indian Tribe or Tribal organization. Specialty crop operations must be located in the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to participate.

Unrestricted use. Assistance will be used by specialty crop producers who incurred eligible costs to obtain food safety certification.

The application period for the 2022 program year began on June 27, 2022, and ended on January 31, 2023. The application period for the 2023 program year began February 1, 2023, and ended on January 31, 2024. The application period for the 2024 program year began July 1, 2024, and ends January 31, 2025. The application period for the 2025 program year will begin January 1, 2025, and will end January 31, 2026. If supporting documentation is requested by FSA, the applicant must submit the documentation to their FSA county office no later than 30 days from the date of the request. There are no restrictions placed on the time permitted to spend the money awarded.

The assistance will be approved and awarded by FSA to eligible producers. Payments for the 2022 program year were issued as applications are processed and approved. Payments for the 2023 program year were issued after the end of the application period, Payments for the 2024 program year will be issued as applications are processed and approved. Payment for the 2025 program year will be issued at 50 percent as applications are processed and approved with the remaining amount issued after the end of the application period. Those payments will be prorated if total calculated payments exceed available funding.

Applicants may request reconsideration of a decision by the decision authority or appeal such decisions to a higher authority including the county and State FSA committees and the National Appeals Division. Appeal regulations in 7 CFR parts 11 and 780 apply. General eligibility provisions and other matters of general applicability that are not in response to, or result from, an individual set of facts in an individual participant's application for payment are not matters that can be appealed.