About LGMA

The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) is a model program that was created in 2007 to protect public health. Today, the LGMA is working to create a culture of food safety on leafy greens farms. A proven collaboration between government and farming communities, the LGMA incorporates science-based food safety practices and mandatory government inspections in an effort to assure safe leafy green products.

The LGMA program has been successfully implemented since 2007. During this time, the program provided regular and consistent audits of its members to ensure compliance with food safety practices. This has resulted in widespread adoption of science-based food safety practices and real penalties for those who fail to comply. Most importantly consumers have enjoyed billions of servings of leafy greens grown under this mandatory government inspection program.

The LGMA, operating with oversight from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, uses government inspectors to verify that growers follow LGMA-accepted food safety practices for lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens. Each LGMA member is required to be in compliance with all LGMA standards in order to achieve certification. The LGMA provides the public with a list of certified member companies and posts names of any member who is decertified. Over 100 farmers, shippers and processors, representing approximately 99% of the volume of California leafy greens are currently certified members of the LGMA.

The grocery stores and restaurants that purchase California leafy greens products help enforce the LGMA by only purchasing product from LGMA certified member companies. LGMA member companies in good standing use a Service Mark that identifies them as LGMA members. This Service Mark is carried on sales documents which are easily recognizable to buyers for grocery stores, restaurants and other institutions. There is currently no LGMA mark on consumer packaging. All LGMA members in good standing are also listed on the members section of this website for easy reference.