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Good Agricultural Practices for Field and Packing Facility Operations

Good Agricultural Practices for Field and Packing Facility Operations. County Agent Food Safety Training Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium January 9-10, 2008 Savannah, Georgia. William C. Hurst, Ph. D. Extension Food Science Outreach Program The University of Georgia, Athens.

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Good Agricultural Practices for Field and Packing Facility Operations

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  1. Good Agricultural Practicesfor Field and Packing Facility Operations County Agent Food Safety Training Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium January 9-10, 2008 Savannah, Georgia William C. Hurst, Ph. D. Extension Food Science Outreach Program The University of Georgia, Athens

  2. Food Quality vs. Food Safety They don’t mean the same thing! From Cornell GAPs program – used with permission.

  3. Plant pathogen – a microorganism known to cause diseases or lesions in plant tissues. Human or animal pathogen – a microorganism known to cause illness to humans or animals. Who is the enemy?

  4. What Can Growers & Packers Do? Prevention is the key! • Learn about the risks • Who is the enemy? • Develop a food safety plan • Document activities

  5. Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) Guidelines Areas of Concern: • Water quality • Fertilizer use • Worker health & hygiene • Field & facility sanitation • Transportation issues • Traceback & recall

  6. What are GAPs? Good Agricultural Practices(GAPs) are sanitary procedures used during crop production, harvesting, packing and shipping to prevent or minimize produce contamination with human pathogens. Irrigation Employee Hygiene Post-harvest Handling

  7. Field Worker Hygiene and Sanitation • Is harvesting equipment clean? Courtesy of Trevor Suslow • Are gloves worn? Courtesy of Cornell GAPs Program • Are toilets well stocked?

  8. Field Worker’s Hands – a major source of human pathogens

  9. Methods of Infecting Produce • Fecal material • Open lesions, boils, sores, infected wounds • Personal illness Staph infection

  10. Bandage on finger, no glove Cover bandage with waterproof glove Bandages

  11. Why wear gloves?

  12. Employee Sanitary Facilities • Do you know FDA’s requirement for providing field restroom facilities?

  13. Taking care of business!

  14. Easy Access

  15. In 2003, at 21 of 24 farms surveyed, worker health and hygiene were the major hazards to produce safety. Inadequate hand washing was the most frequent hazard noted. Inadequate hygiene training ranked #2, followed by unsanitary worker facilities. Worker Health and Hygiene J. Guzewich, Food Protection Mtg. 2003

  16. Field Container Sanitation Clean harvest containers and tools daily.

  17. Field Washing of Produce

  18. Packing Facility Sanitationand Worker Hygiene Sanitation is about attention to details. Foaming/rinsing packing line Employees Equipment Harvesting bins

  19. Arrival at Packing Facility Protect harvested product from animals and animal feces Image courtesy of Trevor Suslow

  20. Is waste removed frequently from the packing shed? Is stagnant water controlled? Packing Facility Grounds

  21. Bird Nesting = A Problem

  22. Why is packing line sanitation important? Salmonella • To prevent human pathogen contamination of product by … Listeria monocytogenes E. coli O157:H7

  23. Salmonella Recovery from Conveyor Belt Surfaces

  24. Salmonella Recovery from PVC Surfaces

  25. Salmonella Recovery from Wood Surfaces

  26. What’s wrong on this packing line?

  27. What happens at break time?

  28. E. coli in Produce

  29. Employee Awareness

  30. Is his mind on safety?

  31. Handling Smocks, Aprons & Gloves

  32. Is this a cultural problem? • No! It’s an education issue.

  33. How do adults learn best?

  34. Effective communication is critical in employee sanitation training

  35. What microbial load do YOU carry? Unwashed hands Hands washed &dipped in sanitizer Gloves washed &dipped in sanitizer Unwashed gloves

  36. Employees must participatefor effective training.

  37. Worker Protection Safety (WPS) • Combine employee hygiene training with EPA-mandated WPS (chemical safety) at the beginning of each harvest season • Keep records of who attended what training and when, to document this training to an auditor.

  38. Water Safety Water is critical to all phases of produce handling! Washing Irrigation Icing Cooling

  39. On-Farm Packing FacilityWater Issues In a 2004 survey of 36 on-farm produce packing operations, inadequate chlorination was the predominant problem. Courtesy Jack Guzewich, USDA/CFSAN 2004

  40. Wash Water Quality Wash water must be properly chlorinated to keep it safe. Testing procedures must be implemented to insure the proper chlorination levels are consistently maintained in the water.

  41. Factors Affecting Chlorine’s Effectiveness • Water pH • Chlorine concentration • Contact time • Organic Matter • Water temperature • Stage of pathogen growth

  42. Effects of pH on Chlorine

  43. “Free” chlorine test kit pH meter Quality Control Tools

  44. Chlorine/pH Daily Monitoring Packing Line: Tomato grading line Specific Location: Water in dump tank Control Limits: Free Chlorine = 100-150 ppm/ pH = 6.5-7.5 Verified by: _______________________ Tomato Line Supervisor

  45. Blueprint for an On-Farm Food Safety Plan • Designate “Farm Sanitarian” to develop, implement, monitor & document on-farm food safety program. • Identify GAPs/GMPs (minimum sanitary guidelines) specific to the agricultural environment (field, packing facility & transport operations). • Include SOPs for production, harvesting & field packing activities.

  46. Food Safety Plan (cont.) • Develop Master Sanitation Schedule for the packing facility, including specific written SOPS for equipment. • Keep field, facility & equipment sanitation records on file. • Document sanitation system is working by conducting internal farm inspection audits. • Continuously train all personnel on sanitary procedures.

  47. Fresh Produce GAPs/GMPs Workshop • This three-day internationally attended workshop presents thorough training in Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and Good Management Practices (GMPs) necessary to prepare a comprehensive HACCP-based food safety program for an on-farm or packinghouse operation. • Unique features include four hands-on break-out sessions which teach participants how to write SOPs, identify and prevent food safety hazards, develop control limits and monitoring procedures for those hazards and methods to document and verify the efforts. • Also included is a hands-on laboratory where participants learn how to use microbial testing to verify sanitation efforts.

  48. REMEMBER … While FOOD QUALITY is an option … … FOOD SAFETY is an entitlement.

  49. Thank you for your attention! Any questions?

  50. Contact information Dr. William C. Hurst 240 Food Science Bldg. University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602-2670 Phone 706/542-0993 Email bhurst@uga.edu Website www.EFSonline.uga.edu

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