Rutgers University | New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station | Pesticide User Responsibility

On-Farm Food Safety Section

Keep up with the latest news on this dynamic topic that impacts growers on multiple levels. Developing a farm food safety plan is a good idea for all growers, and may be required as part of food safety audits if you sell to certain buyers.

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December 12, 2012

Preparing Your Farm Food Safety Plan

The demands placed on farm operators, in terms of food safety documentation, are overwhelming. Growers are dealing with changing and conflicting guidelines from their wholesale customers as well as government entities. No matter that the dust has yet to settle on what practices make sense and what documentation requirements are reasonable for farm operators to perform, the bottom line is this: your operation needs to have a farm food safety plan in writing.

To ease the burden, we’ve gathered information on what needs to be in your farm food safety plan based on current guidelines. We will continue to update this information as it becomes available. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Food Safety
October 2, 2012

Farm Food Safety: Packinghouse Facility Activities

Part 11 of Preparing Your Farm Food Safety Plan

– Meredith Melendez and Wes Kline

Part 11 of your farm food safety plan addresses your packinghouse activities. This includes transportation of the product from the field to the packinghouse, product storage once it has been delivered to the packing house, the washing/packing line, ice, worker health and hygiene and packinghouse general housekeeping. Keep in mind that not all areas of the audit will apply to your farm based on your production practices. Those areas not applicable would be marked not applicable by the auditor. Areas that do apply and that you are deficient, would result in a reduction of audit points. A minimum of 80% must be achieved in each section to pass the final audit. Conducting a mock audit is the best way to determine deficiencies and changes that will need to be made to your farm infrastructure and/or production practices.

The following statements and procedures should be considered for inclusion in your packinghouse facility section: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Food Safety
August 15, 2012

Farm Food Safety: Field Harvest and Field Packing Activities

Part 10 of Preparing Your Farm Food Safety Plan

– Meredith Melendez and Wes Kline

Part 10 of your farm food safety plan addresses field harvest and field packing activities. Your plan should document your actives and your pre-harvest assessment log. Field harvest assessment should be made the day prior to starting to harvest to ensure everything is in place to reduce the chance for product contamination. We covered the specifics of the pre-harvest assessment log in article number 6 of this series. If a field is harvested over several days each morning the assessment is repeated.

The following statements should be included in your Field Harvest and Field Packing Activities section: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Food Safety
August 3, 2012

Farm Food Safety: Farm Irrigation Waters, Animals, Previous Land Use

Part 9 of Preparing Your Farm Food Safety Plan

– Meredith Melendez and Wes Kline

This is the ninth article in a series dedicated to preparing a farm food safety plan. Remember you may not need a third party audit; it depends on who is purchasing your produce. However, everyone should have a food safety plan.

The farm review is an overview of how you minimize the chance of contamination through irrigation waters, wild animals and past land use. This can be as simple as three paragraphs, one focusing on irrigation waters, the next on wild animal activity on the farm and the last on the previous use of the land. The following items should be included: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Food Safety
July 2, 2012

Farm Food Safety: Compliance Documentation – Storage and Transport Logs

Part 8 of Preparing Your Farm Food Safety Plan

– Meredith Melendez and Wes Kline

The USDA Good Agricultural Practices audit requires that certain activities on the farm be documented. These logs should accurately reflect what you have done on the farm to ensure food safety. If you do not write your activities down the auditor will assume that the activity never happened. This documentation may be new for many growers, so making it as easy as possible for you to comply will ensure that the documenting happens in a manner that is acceptable to an auditor. This is the eighth article in a series dedicated to preparing a farm food safety plan. Remember you may not need a third party audit; it depends on who is purchasing your produce. However, everyone should have a food safety plan.
  • Storage Temperature Log
  • Thermometer Calibration Log
  • Carrier Monitoring Log

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Food Safety
June 6, 2012

Farm Food Safety: Compliance Documentation – Packinghouse Logs

Part 7 of Preparing Your Farm Food Safety Plan

-Meredith Melendez and Wes Kline

The USDA Good Agricultural Practices Third Party Audit requires that certain activities on the farm be documented. These logs should accurately reflect what you have done on the farm to ensure food safety. If you do not write your activities down, the auditor will assume that the activity never happened. This documentation may be new for many growers, so making it as easy as possible for you to comply will ensure that the documenting happens in a manner that is acceptable to an auditor.

Remember you may not need a third party audit; it depends on who is purchasing your produce. However, everyone should have a food safety plan.

What packinghouse logs will you need to have as a part of your farm food safety plan? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Food Safety