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Activity 2
| Part II. Applying the principles of post-harvest management to maintain the quality and safety of fresh fruits and vegetables |
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Activity 1 | |
Guidelines for trainers
The trainer stresses the importance of post-harvest handling and the objectives that appropriate programs and actions will acomplish. Material 3.7 allows the trainer to make general remarks on implementing an action plan to maintain quality and improve the post-harvest handling of fruits and vegetables. Presentation 3.3 works through a case study with the assistance of appropriate material (Material 3.8).
Doubts and concepts are clarified in a plenary session, followed by conclusions by the trainer stressing the advantages of using methodologies based on hazard analysis to address quality maintenance of fresh fruits and vegetables and the need to use a holistic and multidisciplinary approach in these matters.
Guidelines for an action plan for quality maintenance and enhancement and for improving the efficiency of post-harvest handling systems for fresh fruits and vegetables
Background information
Quality assurance of horticultural produce allows customers access to products satisfying their expectations. Quality assurance and safety of horticultural produce starts at the very moment when varieties fulfilling the consumer's expectations and those of other actors in the chain are selected according to taste, nutritional value, texture, post-harvest life, perishability rate, etc.
Quality and safety assurance programmes should be directed towards the market and not towards the product, and should answer questions such as:
What does the consumer want? How much is the consumer wiling to pay for the product? Can the volumes required by the customer be delivered on time, with the required quality and at an adequate price?
Quality assurance and safety also involves, among other factors, a systematic planning incorporating people, product, production systems and procedures, the market and the post-harvest infrastructure available.
It is important to state that no post-harvest technologies can improve the quality of a harvested produce not fulfilling the requirements of a particular market. Post-harvest life, however, can be maintained and extended by optimized handling, with reduced damages, etc.
The adequate post-harvest handling of fresh fruits and vegetables must account for the cultural, economic, technological, environmental and administrative context of the target market. On the other hand, the objectives of efficient post-harvest processes and of quality improvement and safety programmes must conform to the needs of the actors along the product handling sequence. Any action plan must incorporate and direct this multiplicity of objectives in such a way that the requisites of all involved are considered.
Objectives of post-harvest technologies for products include:
These objectives can be addressed at a:
As a result of these objectives, country and local projects and programs may result, and/or specific company directed action plans and projects for a product or a group of products.
Maintaining and enhancing quality of fresh fruits and vegetables entails:
Guidelines for action plans to maintain the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables
Guidelines are given to maintain the quality and optimize post-harvest handling systems. These guidelines apply hazard analysis associated to product quality.
Step 1. Assemble a team to develop the plan and assist in its implementation
A multidisciplinary team is called for to attend to the complexities in products, processes and actors involved along the chain and to identify quality related problems and opportunities, as well as feasible and integrated solutions adapted to local conditions.
Some solutions to quality losses will require farmers and entrepreneurs, others transport agents and package manufacturers, still others the resources of research institutions with innovative solutions and suitable technologies. Therefore, the support of different players is required for the plan to succeed, even if leadership should fall in a small group of people.
The team will clearly define the objectives of the Action Plan:
a. What is intended? For example, one or several of the following objectives:
b. For what product or products?. Fresh fruits and vegetables are perishable, some more than others, and show different physiological behavior during maturation and senescence rendering them more susceptible to adverse handling. Knowing this behavior allows choosing the technological alternatives to achieve the objectives of adequate post-harvest handling.
c. Where?, at a company, in a region, nationally, etc.?
d. In what stages of the process are the improvements implemented, during harvest, while making the product suitable for packaging, etc.?
It is essential to define the target market and the expectations resulting from quality (product standards, production standards and handling standards) to be met, since all quality maintenance and enhancement programs point to the customer satisfaction.
It is also necessary to have clear references on what hazards must be considered. That is, those quality hazards preventing conformance to a specific standard. This implies reference to legislation, consumer requirements, specific industry and market standards, a registry of claims and recalls pointing out the more relevant and frequent hazards.
For fresh fruits and vegetables, losses are in the first place related to biological, chemical, mechanical and physiological reasons. Secondary causes result, mainly, from inappropriate handling in post-harvest.
The team will also be involved in identifying the post-harvest technologies used, land tenure structure, farmers involved, etc., as a reference when approaching answers to problems and when dealing with strategies to secure identified opportunities.
Step 2. Flow diagram and in situ confirmation
Steps leading from harvest to final consumer must be adequately identified in order to know what improvements can be introduced. Additionally - whenever possible - players, times involved and activities developed to access the target market should also be identified.
The flow diagram must furnish enough technical information to design the plan, following logical sequences and ensuring that all steps are included.
Step 3. Identifying hazards resulting in quality losses and establishing control measures
The following step is identifying hazards responsible (associated damages) for quality losses and nonconformance to standards or quality specifications for the target market, at each stage of the process.
The team developing the plan describes each step in the process, pointing out, according to their experience, the various strengths and weaknesses associated to quality maintenance and efficiency Material 3.8, Table 1.
Each problem and hazard resulting directly in quality losses (i.e. mechanical damage) or indirectly (i.e. long delays during processing) is studied as shown in Material 3.8, Table 2.
While identifying hazards associated to process steps, the team should consider:
Once the problems (associated hazards) are identified, appropriate prevention/control measures need to be established.
Some measures will result from training workers, transport personnel, traders, etc., while others imply adopting available and proven technologies and techniques. (see Presentation 3.1.). Sometimes the resources of research institutions with suitable technologies and/or information will be required.
At critical stages, where it is necessary to enforce hazard prevention and control measures, consideration should be given to their implementation in the short, medium and long term, allowing for available technical and financial resources and technological responses. Recommendations to optimize technologies should be backed by analysis of costs and benefits, pointing out clearly the technologies to be adopted and to the resulting benefits.
Step 4. Prioritizing control points
Once agreement has been reached to define the problems and their likely solutions, priority must be given to those steps in the process where control measures to prevent, reduce or eliminate a hazard should be introduced.
In general, problems associated with inadequate post-harvest handling are accumulative and seldom one single control measure on a specific point of the process will help to control hazards (e.g. mechanical hazards). Nevertheless, it is important to identify steps where control methods will significantly influence the prevention, reduction or elimination of associated hazards.
The order of magnitude of the identified hazard is important when control points are being prioritized; for instance, estimates of quality losses, physical losses associated with mechanical spoilage and other physical and physiological damages. (see Case Study, Material 3.8).
Step 5. Identifying acceptance levels
For fresh fruits and vegetables acceptance levels apply for quality criteria and size, and according to the quality standard adopted by the target market, different levels of tolerance may be acceptable.
For defects in fruits (mechanical damages), tolerance levels depend on the established quality classes. For other hazards, e.g. pests or diseases, abnormal smells or tastes endangering the safety or the aptitude for use as a fresh produce (section on the standard dealing with minimum requirements, Material 3.4), tolerance zero applies and adequate measures should be enforced to prevent such hazards.
Levels of tolerance or of acceptability for nonconformance with some quality requirements are therefore associated to the expectations of the intended target market. If this is an export market, efforts should be channeled to produce export quality fruits and vegetables that enable maintaining this quality, with adequate handling, through harvesting and post-harvesting.
For the defined control points, levels of acceptance must be established to monitor the efficiency of the operation: for example an optimum range for refrigeration temperatures (to avoid damages resulting from excessive cold or freezing or from excessive heat on the post-harvest life) should temperatures run out of control.
Implementation follows, once these measures are defined in the short, medium and long term for the different stages:
Available human and financial resources are evaluated (both entrepreneurial and institutional) and a responsible individual and time frame are agreed.
The following points should be considered in executing the Action Plan:
Step 6. Establish a follow-up system
To assess the effectiveness of control measures, a simple follow-up system, easy to use by the players, should be put in place. A responsible individual is needed for collecting data, overseeing collection frequency and take action in case the objectives of the Plan are not met.
Examples of follow up for product quality are: records describing qualities delivered, percentage of rejects, reasons for rejection, reviewing process temperatures, records of selection and grading equipment, records of training, drying times and temperatures.
Step 7. Establish a Corrective Plan
Corrective actions are required whenever the goals in the Plan are not met. To assure success, measures such as improved training for workers and transport personnel, reviewing temperature control systems, storage conditions, logistics of handling the product and waiting times are required throughout the implementation of the Plan.
Step 8. Documents and records
For proper evaluation of the Plan it is required that all records be kept. This is also a precondition for certification, should this be part of the plan.
Step 9. Evaluation and refocusing of the Plan
In the highly changing and dynamic horticultural sector the two-fold purpose of satisfying the customer and making profit should be met. Therefore, market opportunities and product differentiation through post-harvest technologies entail a continuous need to reroute quality assurance and safety plans and to redefine strategies along with the changing requirements of the markets.
The goal of quality assurance and safety is to satisfy the needs of the customers while making profits efficiently through adaptability, change and innovation.