Sep 1, 2009 by Erika
wash your hands, please: rodale’s ‘new farm’ on safe post-harvest handling for farmers
Food safety is not just a legal responsibility, but a moral and ethical obligation you have with your customers. (Chris Blanchard, Rock Springs Farm)
The Rodale Institute’s New Farm just posted Malcolm Robinson’s Handle With Care, which discusses food safety and handling practices for fruit and vegetable growers.
It highlights a Post-Harvest Handling Decision Tool from Iowa’s Value Chain Partnerships. (The Value Chain site is, in general, great resource for farmers and other folks working to strengthen regional food systems.)
Handle With Care emphasizes common sense and outlines accessible actions and processes to maintain food safety. Some excerpts:
- Good post-harvest handling gives farmers a competitive edge, additional profits and fewer food safety concerns.
- Initial costs for a post-harvest handling facility can be as low as a few hundred dollars for an open-air, outside facility.
- When investing in a packing facility growers need to envision where they want to be in 10 years and take into account their harvest-wash-pack system, labor requirements and market potential.
- The most fundamental aspect to food safety is frequent hand washing. “This is most probably one of the most controllable areas in the whole process and through this basic hygiene a potentially large contamination problem can be eliminated,” said Iowa State University Extension food safety specialist Sam Beattie.
- Equipment, tools and surfaces are routinely cleaned and disinfected.
- Quality control for produce begins in the field. Any produce contaminated with fecal matter from any animal, including birds, should be discarded.
- Tracing is critical: the minimum requirements for traceability should include these details: date harvested, date distributed, place of distribution, and how long the product can be kept on the shelf at various retail outlets.
- Handling systems can vary greatly between farms. What’s the same is the need to continually evaluate post-harvest operations to improve efficiency, hygiene and food safety.
- Consistent progress is more important than getting it right from the start.
Additional resources for Good Agricultural Practices (GAPS):
