Part 5 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, sample logs are available on the Plant & Pest Advisory On-Farm Food Safety section under manual forms.

What field operations logs will you need to have as a part of your farm food safety plan?

[Read more…]

Part 4 of Preparing Your Farm Food Safety Plan

-Meredith Melendez and Wes Kline

Part 4 continues the Answering General Questions portion of your farm food safety plan, which covers the broad details of:

• Who is responsible for the farm food safety plan and how to reach them
• Worker health and hygiene education
• Pesticide usage
• Traceability

Suggested wording for traceback, which may work for your farm food safety plan, is given in this installment. [Read more…]

Part 3 of Preparing Your Farm Food Safety Plan 

-Meredith Melendez and Wes Kline

The purpose of the Answers to General Questions portion of your farm food safety plan is to cover the broad details of your plan. Who is responsible for plan implementation and how to reach them; worker health and hygiene education; pesticide usage; traceability; and self-auditing are topics that should be covered. Below is an outline along with suggested wording that may work for your farm food safety plan – traceability and self-auditing are discussed in part four.

• Food Safety Plan Responsibility – Personnel and Contact Information
• Farm Worker Health and Hygiene Education
• Pesticide Use

[Read more…]

Part 2 of Preparing Your Farm Food Safety Plan

-Meredith Melendez and Wes Kline

Farm mapping is a familiar thing for growers in New Jersey. Field maps, pesticide storage maps and customer maps are regular tasks, but mapping for food safety? Mapping your farm with food safety in mind allows you to manage the physical characteristics of the farm to minimize microbial contamination hazards.

Hand drawn maps are acceptable for an audit, but if you want a computer generated map, or an aerial image, there are several free resources that you can use. The easiest to use is the “My Maps” section of Google Maps . Just plug in your farm’s physical address, zoom in so the map shows the entire farm and print. You can then hand draw in the details required for the food safety maps or trace the prominent features of the farm onto a clean sheet of paper and add in the required components. Another good resource is the USDA Web Soil Survey . Your local FSA also has aerial photo maps that could be used. Simple computer drawn maps, like the ones shown in the Henderson Farm Plan, can be created using standard computer software such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Publisher.

What map(s) will you need for your food safety plan? [Read more…]

Part 1 of Preparing Your Farm Food Safety Plan

-Meredith Melendez and Wes Kline

Having a farm food safety plan that is specific to your operation makes good business sense. Publicity about illness outbreaks traced back to farms has created a public that pays much more attention to food safety than they used to. Developing your own farm food safety plan can help to reassure your customers about food safety on your farm and potentially increase your market opportunities. A farm food safety plan will help prove to your customers dedication to on-farm food safety and show them the measures you’ve taken to ensure a safe quality product. The first step in writing a farm food safety plan is to create a food safety mission statement for the farm. [Read more…]

I have been collaborating with NJDA in food safety training since 1999. Meredith Melendez and I took on this task at growers request to help support the industry.

At times, it has been a frustrating experience for both growers and us. Some growers and buyers have said “I will get out of the business before doing those things” and in fact some probably will retire. However, the majority, even if they have not gotten a third party audit or even attended the food safety trainings, have made changes in their operations that have improved food safety. How many still pack cilantro or parsley on the garage or packing house floor, which was a common practice before food safety became an issue? I have seen many changes that growers have made in the last 10 years and expect to see many more. [Read more…]