UC Davis offers postharvest technology training program

The first certificate program designed for those working in the fresh produce business is being offered through the Postharvest Technology Center at the University of California, Davis. The program offers on-site and online training on how to successfully handle produce from farm to plate.

Led by experts in postharvest technology, the program covers everything from safety, new technologies, physiology, harvesting, cooling, transportation, ripening and marketing fresh produce.

UC Davis said the program allows participants to customize their curriculum through an a-la-carte menu of classes in addition to three core classes—the postharvest technology short course, the produce safety course and either the fruit ripening and retail handling workshop or the fresh cut products workshop. Some of the customized classes can be taken online and the program allows four years to complete course work.

Organizers said registration in the Produce Professional Certificate program guarantees priority registration in all on-site courses, access to distance learning modules, individual certificates of completion after successful completion of an online exam for each course or distance learning module, and a special "Produce Professional Certificate" plaque after participants earn a minimum of 120 points within the four-year timeline.

The registration fee is $2,500.

The program helps employers, job-seekers and anyone interested in expanding their postharvest expertise, said Beth Mitcham, director of the Postharvest Technology Center and a postharvest biologist and Cooperative Extension specialist with the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis.

Depending on the courses chosen, the certificate program costs about $7,500 to complete. For program details, check the Postharvest Technology Center website at http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/ or call 530-752-6941 or email postharvest@ucdavis.edu.