Guidelines for action plans to assure safety of fresh fruits and vegetables

Step 1. Assemble the team

Remarks

Diversity in scales of production for fruits and vegetables, regional and local handling practices, the environment, specifics of soils and many other production factors with their various interactions, dictate a multidisciplinary approach to safety assurance.

When considering assembling the HACCP team for a product, candidates conversant with the following should be included:

• determining contamination hazards in primary production systems and available control methods for chemical, physical and biological contaminants;
• knowledge on production and post-harvest systems (local, national and regional);
• experience in implementation of ICM and IPM;
• experience with (principles and practice) of HACCP and GAP, GMP and GHP;
• knowledge of the target market demands on safety;
• experience in technology transfer to producers and others in the chain.

Small teams supported by specific external consultants when required (academia, private consultants, producers, exporters, etc.) must be favoured. The team will produce the plan (collect and evaluate technical data, determine hazards and control points) and conduct its implementation and verification.

A team leader coordinates, suggests changes and makes sure that objectives are accomplished. Sometimes training, in food hygiene in general and for fresh fruits and vegetables in particular, to ensure a common language among all the members of the team may prove very useful.

Responsibilities of the team

The purpose and scope of the safety assurance program is point number one for the team to consider:

• The product(s) and specific process to be studied: For example, in a program at the national level, directed first at ensuring export products safety, all activities must apply to products for this market. Safety programs should cover groups of products, with specific production and post-harvest handling characteristics, and establish general recommendations for those points regarded as critical for safety in production and post-harvesting. Specific products should be covered, if possible, by specific recommended practice guidelines, i.e.: good practice guidelines for leafy vegetables and for deciduous fruit trees. Producers in their farms will select "the Best", out of the good recommended practices, to take into account particular characteristics of the crop, the region, etc.



• Establish which links in the food chain will be evaluated: It is essential to determine if the program will cover only production, or only adaptation processes in packaging or both. It should be remembered that contamination in a previous processing step will affect safety in the following steps. For example, an exporter willing to assure safety in packing, must make sure that the raw materials from the field are safe and of high quality and support suppliers in implementing practices to achieve the highest quality and safety standards.



• Establish which hazards will be evaluated: Horticulture produce can suffer in production and post-harvest handling from microbiological (food-borne pathogens), chemical (chemical pesticide traces) and physical risks (hairs, sticks, filth, etc.), as mentioned earlier. It is therefore, necessary to have clear references on the safety hazards to be covered by the program:
• hazards not permitting product conformance with standards of target market (i.e. safety regulations in the importing country, certification requirements for fresh produce importers in some markets);
• hazards in the internal market.
• Establish principles and essential areas covered: adopt measures to ensure food safety throughout, protect the health and welfare of personnel in production and post-harvest handling, and implement practices assuring sustainability for production systems, while protecting the environment.

In the first place, safety assurance programs should be planned according to financial resources available (a private company) or assigned (a country). The team should be concerned with hazards "significant" for safety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Excessive resources could be wasted if unnecessary hazards were selected, bearing only marginally on production or on final product safety, and in particular when small producers are concerned. The working team should always take into consideration what is appropriate and what is necessary to assure safety of fresh fruits and vegetables in the context of market requirements.

Steps 2 and 3. Product description and use

The team must produce a clear description of produce in a safety assurance program. The description will include composition, packaging, transport conditions, distribution requirements, handling instructions and instructions for use.

Handling requirements for maintaining product quality, such as storage temperature, are of value for players involved in distribution and retail sales. Consumers that may be prone to particular biological hazards should be properly identified: children, pregnant women, senior citizens, etc.

Use of produce is also important to identify hazards, for example, fresh produce whose periderm is consumed, represent higher risks for the consumers than if the product had not been properly produced and handled.

Steps 4 and 5. Establish a Flow Diagram and in situ confirmation

Steps and operations involved from production in the farm to shipping to the target market need to be identified to assess the risks involved in production and post-harvest. Besides characterizing each activity, a responsible individual and times of operation should be identified as key information to establish the standard operating procedures supporting personnel job descriptions and training.

The Flow Diagram must be logical and include all steps. It must be verified in situ to ensure that key steps were not left out.

If the same product is produced in different areas with different production systems, the working team will carefully identify key steps and operations to maintain safety. The Flow Diagram must reflect production areas and any specific operations taking place in particular areas. As part of the process flow, in situ verification is important to identify water resources, storage areas for agrochemicals, places for composting, facilities at the farm and for post-harvesting. This will assist in identifying product hazards.

Step 6. List all potential hazards, conduct a hazard analysis and consider measures to control identified hazards

This step identifies product safety hazards for each stage in the process and possible measures that could be implemented to prevent, control or reduce them.

It is suggested that the Code of hygiene for fresh fruits and vegetables, is followed, identifying hazards in:

Primary production activities

• environment
• agricultural inputs
• associated crops facilities
• equipment, machinery and tools
• growing practices
• possible contamination associated with personnel health and hygiene

Post-harvest handling activities

• inputs
• facilities
• equipment, machinery and tools
• packaging, storage, handling and post-harvest treatments
• possible contamination associated with personnel health and hygiene, visitors included
• possible contamination associated to animals (rodents, etc.)

Once possible hazards associated to each activity are identified, preventive, reducing or controlling measures are established. These appear in the GAP, GMP, GHP, or in support programs such as SOPs.

Step 7. Prioritize critical process steps for maintaining safety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Establish control points

In those steps, where established hazards would have a significant impact on product safety, there is a need for prevention and control measures. These points are known, in codes of practice for primary production, as "Control Points".

The following should be considered:

• Involve the different players.
• Collect data on microbiological analysis of water and product, on pesticides residues resulting from tests run by companies acquiring pesticides in the same production area, review data on pesticides more commonly used, review data on weed killers, records on diseases occurring in personnel, etc. This data will be of relevance when prioritizing control points and control measures to be enforced in the short, medium and long term.
• Consider cultural, social and economic concerns that will or will not facilitate implementing preventive and control measures by producers, and especially small producers.
• Establish the requirements for the target market. For example, some certifying protocols consider major, minor and recommended control measures. Major measures should always be complied with, minor measures should show some tolerance, while recommended measures are future requirements or recommendations going one step ahead of minor measures. For Chilean exports the protocol for orchards has 32 major items, 143 minor items and 43 recommended, while the packaging protocol considers 35 major items, 180 minor and 63 recommended.

Step 8. Establish critical limits

Even if one of the difficulties in applying the HACCP approach to primary production is establishing "critical limits", it is important in methodologies similar to HACCP to define acceptance levels for hazards associated to each control point, for example: number of qualified people, preharvest intervals, maintenance of equipment routines and calibrating equipment routines. These parameters, even if they will not specify the hazards for fruit and vegetables contamination, once contamination takes place are basic for the acceptance of the prevention and control measures implemented, as well as for implementing corrective measures.

Implement the plan

When implementing the action plan it is important to have:

• monitoring procedures and corrective actions;
• verification procedures;
• records and follow-up actions;
• involvement and commitment of all players.

This last point, ensures or not, the success of the plan.

Step 9. Establish a monitoring system for each control point

A simple and easily applied monitoring system must be established to define the efficiency of the control or the preventive measures for each control point. The system should consider data to be collected and collection frequency, a responsible individual and actions to be taken should the objectives of the established program not be met.

Keeping records for implemented actions is essential, for example, to support future certification processes, to evaluate the plan and to adjust processes as required. Record keeping is equally important for traceability plans, allowing tracking a product back to its origin, should safety problems appear.

Records should be kept for training personnel, pesticide applications, cleaning and disinfecting facilities, fruit collection, cold rooms' temperatures, drying temperatures, gas concentration in modified atmospheres, microbiological tests, etc.

Step 10. Establish corrective actions

The company must have a self-evaluation program, allowing through a continuous review of records for each control point, an assessment that the control measures are being met or not, and implementing actions for their compliance. Some corrective measures are: more specific records, the strengthening of training programs, establishing strict personnel hygienic measures and strategies to commit personnel in applying measures.

Step 11. Establish verification procedures

This consists in auditing all records and verification procedures, microbiological, chemical and physical analysis to verify if the safety assurance program is performing satisfactorily. Following audits, a period of time for correcting nonconformities applies. For proper verification, adequate indicators and appropriate verification means are required.

Indicators: allow for quantitative measurements to determine if criteria are met. For example, laboratory analysis and water analysis. These results are compared with the levels set for total coliforms and fecal coliforms in water, pesticide residues in products, etc., in conformance with national standards, target market requirements or Codex standards.

Verification procedures: information obtained through observation that can be used to demonstrate that a control measure is being effectively implemented, for example, field visits or reviewing records. Good verification procedures must be included in the follow up system, must be relevant, accepted by all actors, be practical and possibly integrative.

Results of the verification process must be recorded through analytical results, record keeping, frequency of verification and clear sampling procedures.

Step 12. Establish documentation and record keeping

Safety assurance programs, being regulatory, require complete record keeping. These records permit external audits, traceability and certification. Field and packaging registers kept electronically or in a notebook are valid records. Documents supporting hazard analysis, records of verification procedures and planned corrective actions are also program documents.