AUBURN - With spring and summer, comes the farmers market.

Whether in front of Wegmans, or a roadside stand, there are a plethora of farmers offering their goods directly to consumers.

At the Cornell Cooperative Extension, team coordinator Christina Selvek heads up the Local Foods, Local Markets discussion group, which meets several times a year to address topics that affect local food producers.

On Tuesday morning, the group welcomed Evelyn Miles, supervising food inspector for New York State Ag. and Markets.

“This is already our third meeting,” Selvek said. “We meet four to five times a year. And we try to coordinate topics and speakers and get local farmers involved as much as possible so we can talk about these topics as much as possible before the season begins.”

Many area farmers such as Dave Wilczek, of Wilczek Family Farms, have been in business for nearly 30 years and find this group to be beneficial.

“I try to always come to these,” Wilczek said. “There is always more to learn and you always want to try to keep as up to date on everything as you can and this is a good way to do that.”

Miles spoke on many topics, but ultimately they all tied into consumer safety.

“We live in a litigious society,” Miles said. “There are people that are looking for people with deep pockets and these are all issues that people have to be aware of.”

Miles discussed a number of the guidelines that inspectors such as herself look for when checking out farmers markets and small food stands.

Miles said cleanliness was what inspectors look for first.

For example, she said if any items are going to be handled, such as in restaurants, the seller has to have warm water, soap and paper towels to keep their hands clean before and after handling.

Other items such as eggs, cheese, milk and any other dairy products must be kept at 41 degrees. This is to prevent any bacterial or other growth on food products.

Miles recommended that if sellers were going to have items such as eggs, they should hard boil a sample presentation package and keep the eggs for sale in a cool place.

Other common farmers market items such as apple cider are now required to be either pasteurized or UV treated before going to market.

Miles added that if samples are made available of products such as jams or fruits, a seller should prepare sample cups and let the buyers pick it up themselves, rather than handling items and passing them along.

“You want to avoid hand contact,” Miles said. “You really want to minimize handling and you want to make sure that samples are covered to keep flies and things like that from getting in the samples.”

Miles added that baked goods must be labeled with the item name, business name and address, weight and ingredients.

“People are becoming more aware of allergens,” Miles said. “More people are looking for them and this way they can see what is in the chocolate chip cookie before they buy it.”

Dave Tripp, of Owen's Orchards, has been in business for 25 years and while he does most of his business from his retail store, he said it never hurts to look into any changes that occur in the regulations.

“I just wanted to make sure I was up to date on everything,” Tripp said. “It is always good to make sure you have all the information and know what the regulations are.”

To learn more

For more information on farmer's market guidelines visit www. Agmkt.state.ny.us