The Elements of Produce Food Safety Programs

by Shari L. Plimpton, Ph.D.

Ah, yes. All of this talk about produce food safety programs. How valuable they are. How you can operate more safely and minimize your risks. How the consumer and the market benefits from increased safety awareness. How you can sell to more buyers by demonstrating that you have an active food safety program. So, just what is a food safety program?

Developing a food safety program requires a basic understanding of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and Good Handling Practices (GHPs). Attempting to develop a program without some form of training is like trying to write a legal contract without any legal training or experience. You may know what you want and how your operation runs, but it might not hold up to inspection if you don’t know what i’s to dot and what t’s to cross.

A food safety program consists of several key elements. They are:

• A listing of GAPs and GHPs from the field to the packing house to the buyer;

• A systematic listing of GAPs/GHPs with their respective control procedures, control limits, corrective action, responsible party and method of documentation;

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) based on the GAPs and GHPs that have been identified;

• Standard Sanitation Operating Procedures (SSOPs) as needed for packing house operations; and

• Documentation procedures to show you are doing what you say you are doing, and to provide the information needed for a traceback/recall program.

• A Traceback/Recall system.

Every food safety program begins with the basics, such as, your company name, address, phone numbers, email addresses, owner(s) names, legal description and maps. One particularly critical piece of basic information is the name of the individual who oversees the food safety program. A food safety program on paper is meaningless without some one individual who is responsible for making sure it all happens.

Maps and floor plans are considered an essential part of the basics, as well. A map of the overall operation including buildings, field, wells and water location, as well as, packing house floor plans indicating product flow, are central to laying out your unique operation’s GAPs and control points from field to market.

Next, identify and list the key GAPs and GHPs using the flow chart(s) of your operation, which layout each operation. Begin with the land itself (land use history, adjacent property use), and then review water usage (irrigation, spraying, and equipment cleaning), sewage (treatment systems on or adjacent to the farm), animals (livestock and wildlife control), fertilizers (manure and municipal biosolids), and pest control (including pesticide use).

Use a numbering system for each GAP you identify so you can list them numerically. Once you’ve covered the land and field practices, proceed with the harvesting activities this time looking at worker sanitation and hygiene, as well as, container and equipment use and sanitation.

GAP development continues for the packing house scrutinizing water usage, chemical use and storage, worker sanitation and hygiene, equipment condition and sanitation, facility condition, pest control, and general housekeeping. GHPs should be developed for storage and transportation focusing on storage facilities and temperature control, containers and pallets, pest control, water sanitation (if ice is used), cleanliness and temperature control during transport.

Once you have the GAPs and GHPs and their accompanying measures and corrective actions, you can use them to develop the SOPs that describe how you maintain each GAP/GHP. An SOP simply describes how things should be done in sufficient detail for the task, whether it is describing good worker hygiene practices or how to calibrate a thermometer. Usually one page will do and the identity of the approving supervisor and date approved should be included.

SSOPs are just like SOPs only they describe specific sanitation procedures usually associated with the packing house. Typical SSOPs include cleaning procedures for equipment (including frequency), how to manage the pest control program, and training requirements for employees.

Now that your procedures are identified and written down, you will need documentation forms to help you document everything you say you are doing. Document cleaning, document testing for chlorine, document water testing where needed, document training, document production, document storage temperatures, and document shipping to name a few. As far as any outside party is concerned, if it isn’t documented you haven’t done it.

Finally, maintain harvest, production, storage and transportation records so you may traceback any produce that has left you operation. The beginnings of a traceback/recall program can take form with simple date codes applied to containers and written on existing records. The important issues are being able to identify your produce, know when it was packed, and when it was harvested. Strong identification records not only are essential for food safety; they also are useful management tools.

So, there they are; the elements of a food safety program. If they seem daunting, fear not. The Ohio Specialty Crop Risk Management Initiative (Initiative) is here to assist Ohio growers develop their food safety programs.

Consultation for GAPs, developing food safety programs, and passing third party audits is available through CIFT. You can reach us by calling Shari L. Plimpton at 614-314-4627 or emailing us at foodsafety@eisc.org.

Good Agricultural Practices Articles...

• ABCs of GAPs

• Cleanliness is Next to Food Safety

• The Distant Sound of Drumming

• The Efficient Use of Chlorine and Other Sanitizers in Postharvest Fruit and Vegetable Operations

• The Elements of Produce Food Safety Programs

• GAPs in Organics: Fresh Produce Safety from Pre-planting through Production

• Handling Your Food Safety Risks

• Its Not All in the Bag

• Passing a Third Party Food Safety Audit

• Pest Patrol for Fruit and Vegetable Growers

• Planning for Prevention: Fresh Produce Safety from Pre-planting through Production

• So, Just How Clean is Your Water

• Sustaining Healthy Soil

• The Value of a Food Safety Plan

• Water, Water Everywhere

• Worker Hygiene Keeps Produce Clean