Your Farm’s Name
Address
City, Hawaii Zip
Good Agricultural Practices
Food Safety Plan
(Includes Packing)
Prepared Month, Day Year
Approved month, day, year by name, title
This food safety plan is based upon the United Fresh Produce Association Harmonized Good Agricultural Standards, the USDA AMS GAP Audit and the FDA Proposed Produce Rule. It is oriented to Hawaii farming.
This manual is to be used for tree nuts that may be consumed raw as defined in the FDA Proposed Produce Rule. Tree nuts, such as macadamia nuts, are defined as allergens by the FDA and thus require specific techniques. Tree nuts have also been implicated in foodborne illness occurrences as they may be contaminated with Salmonella sp. bacteria which can survive for long periods in dry conditions. The FDA is currently reviewing tree nut food safety based upon the potential for contamination. At present, there are no regulations that dictate specific requirements for growing and handling macadamia nuts.
Text appearing in red gives directions or provides information. The red text should not be present in your manual. The black text is what should be present in your manual. Remember that you will probably need to change the black text in some cases to fit your specific operation.
- General Requirements
- Management Responsibility and Agricultural Activities
Food Safety Policy: Farm Name is committed to producing safe products through good agricultural and good handling practices that focus on food safety and quality. We strive to prevent microbial contamination of fresh produce so that it is not necessary to take corrective action after a product has left our farm. We communicate this policy to our workers during training sessions and continually reinforce it during the growing season.
To further promote food safety, we label our product containers and place on the product shipping document the following wording: “It is recommended that this product be washed prior to consumption”.This text may not be appropriate for some commodities.
Disciplinary Policy: If a worker does not follow acceptable sanitary practices, he/she is verbally corrected and retrained if needed. If we see repeated lapses in good sanitary and hygienic practices from any farm worker we will move them to a part of the operation that does not involve handling the produce or they will be dismissed.
Food Safety Program Responsibility: The program described within this Food Safety Plan is the responsibility of Farm Owner Name who acts as the Food Safety Officer. He or she can be contacted at address, telephone number, email address. If this person is not available, contact Alternate Person at address, telephone number, email address.
1.1.
Farm Namegrows the crops listed below. Describe to whom you sell your crops (distributer, restaurant, farmers market, etc.) and how you transport them. Describe who works on the farm and if you hire any workers. Describe what work is performed by all workers (including family members, free labor, paid labor).State what animals (if any; include pets) you have on the farm, how many and where they are located. For example, do you have goats, sheep, cows or similar? Are they in a pasture near the crop?
Crops Grown.
CropArea under Cultivation
NameAcres
NameAcres
1.2.The Food Safety Plan
This food safety plan identifies all products and the materials used to grow them. The plan describes anticipated physical, chemical, biological and radiological hazards, and procedures for preventing and managing them, including monitoring, verification and recordkeeping. Areas of concern include water, soil amendments, field sanitation, production environment, securityand worker practices.Our plan includes policies and preventive procedures describinghow we keep our products safe, and forms that show we are following our plan. This food safety plan is reviewed and revised, if necessary, at least once every year.
1.3.Documentation and Record Keeping
Written records of all food safety activities are maintained on file. Our records include this plan, maps, and forms. We keep all of our records in binders (state of other place if used) which are kept state where they are located. Previous records are filed in a cabinet so they are available for inspection. Our records begin in insert date, the first year we initiated our food safety plan. Records are reviewed and verified by the Food Safety Officer on at least a weekly cycle. Records related to food safety are kept for at least two years.
1.4.Worker Education and Training
All workers receive training at hire and routinely thereafter. Training information is provided by various universities such as University of Hawaii, University of California, Cornell University and Penn State University. Training may also be provided by industry groups and qualified individuals. Topics include, but are not limited to, food safety policies and procedures, personal health and hygiene, health condition symptoms, product contamination and job-specific functions. Visitors and contractors must adhere to the same standards as employees.
Training activities are recorded on the training record and kept for at least two years.
1.5.Sampling and Testing
Water used for irrigation, product washing, food contact surface washing and hand washing is sourced and tested as described below. If you do not wash your product, omit the phrase “product washing”. Testing is performed by using commercially available testing kits (see Appendix A) that meet the requirements of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists or the American Public Health Association or the FDA Bacteriological Analytical Manual. Testing may also be performed by an appropriate state licensed laboratory (insert name of laboratory). In addition, water used for drinking must meet the other requirements as specified by the EPA and the Safe Drinking Water Act. Water used for drinking is tested by an appropriate state licensed laboratory (insert name of laboratory).You may need to purchase drinking water to meet this standard.
You now need to select the source of your water from the information below. If you have multiple sources of water, you will need to use the text for each water source. Change the black text as required to describe your situation.
IMPORTANT: If you use water in a manner wherein it is unlikely to contact the harvestable portion of the crop at any time, you are not required to have the water tested. Furrow, drip and subsurface irrigation methods are not likely to contact the harvestable portion of the crop. Insert the following text. The water used on our farm does not contact the crop at any time. We use insert type of irrigation, therefore routine testing of the irrigation water is not required according to the FDA Proposed Produce Rule.
If you use untreated water from surface source such as a stream, river or open reservoir, use the following text. Water that comes from the river and the reservoir on our property is untreated and is tested as above every seven days during the growing season.
If you use untreated water from a well and the water is stored in a reservoir that is protected from runoff, use the following text. Water that comes from our well is stored in our untreated reservoir (protected against runoff water).The water is tested as above monthly during the growing season.
If you use water from an untreated well, use the following text. Water from our untreated well is tested as above every three months during the growing season.
If you use water from a source on your property and you treat the water according to the FDA Proposed Produce Rule, use this text. Water from ourinsert source type is treated according to section 112.43 of the FDA Proposed Produce Rule. Describe your treatment process in detail here. Water treatment procedures are monitored routinely to ensure the water is safe for its intended use.
If you use water supplied by a municipal drinking water system, use this text. All water used on our operation is supplied by insert the name of the supplier which is a public drinking water supplier that meets the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act regulations. A copy of the most recent published results as provided by the supplier is kept on file.
For water used during the product growing period, wherein the water may contact the crop, the generic Escherichia coli (E. coli) must not exceed 235 CFU (or MPN) per 100 ml for any one sample or a geometric mean (last 5 samples) not exceeding 126 CFU (MPN) per 100 ml. The procedure is explained in Appendix A. You can omit this text if your water is not likely to contact the crop at any time as noted above. But, if you wash your crop then the washing water must be tested as described below.
Water used for food contact surface washing and hand washing must have no detectable levels of generic Escherichia coli (E. coli) per 100 ml. In addition, water that contacts the product during or after harvest must have no detectable generic E. coli.
If you use compost from a supplier on your farm, include the following text. All compost utilized on our farm has a Certificate of Analysis stating that it meets the applicable regulations. This certificate is provided by an appropriate state licensed laboratory.
If you produce your own compost, you must use a method described in the FDA Proposed Produce Rule, sections 112.54 and 112.55. You must describe in detail that process. The compost must be tested to ensure it meets the standards. The testing methods must meet the standards described previously.
All laboratory testing records are maintained on file for at least two years.
1.6.Traceability
Records of all agricultural inputs (seeds, transplants, fertilizers, amendments, chemicals) are maintained. Each product container is labeled with the following information.
Farm name and address
Tracing code (crop location, crop name and type, and harvest date)
You may also want to place a code that signifies the harvest crew involved with the crop. Insert the code you use here and describe each part of the code. For example, the code might be 2014-08-11 01-03 HC1 in which 2014-08-11 is the harvest date,01-03 is field 1 area 3, and HC1 is Harvest Crew 1. You can also use a “Julian Date” which is based upon the day of the year. For example, January 1 2014 would be 14001. December 31 2014 would be 14365.
When the product is sold, the invoice or other shipping document such as a Bill of Lading includes information on boxes shipped, to whom, the date of shipment, and the tracing code. If a product is comingled during or after harvest, the above label information for each crop is recorded for our files and also provided to the buyer. Copies of all invoices and other shipping documents are kept so that tracing can be performed adequately and efficiently.
At least once per year, a mock traceability/recall exercise is performed. This exercise tests our ability to determine how and where a certain product was grown, when it was harvested, how it was handled and to whom it was sold. Contact information for each customer is retained on file. The amount harvested must equal the amount sold to customers, minus any discarded product. The goal is to have this information ready for presentation within four hours.
1.7.Recall Program
The responsibility for conducting a recall is assigned to the Food Safety Officer, insert the name of the farm owner or other employee assigned this duty. If a recall is determined to be needed, the Food Safety Officer contacts the buyers of the affected products. The tracing codes of the products are provided and the buyer is requested to place the product on hold so it is not sold or further distributed. The affected product may be destroyed or returned to the farm, depending upon the circumstances of the recall. The Food Safety Officer also contacts the FDA, the State Department of Agriculture and initiates a press release. The Food Safety Officer may also need to contact the attorney for the farming operation.
1.8.Corrective Actions
If a food safety risk is discovered, corrective actions are taken to solve the problem. We document the problem, what actions taken to correct it, the party responsible for correcting the problem, and what if any improvements in our practices were needed to prevent future problems.
1.9.Self-audits
An internal self-audit is completed at least annually. All aspects of the operations food safety plan are reviewed and we record any corrective actions that may have been needed. The United Fresh Produce Association Harmonized Good Agricultural Standards audit form (Field Operations and Harvesting) is utilized for this exercise.
- Field Production
- Field History and Assessment
Potential hazards due to previous land use have been evaluated. This assessment was done prior to planting and again prior to harvesting.The land has been used to grow insert crop name for over insert number years. Prior to that, the land was used for insert previous land use. The land has never been used for confined animal operations, as a land fill or as any other type of dump site. If the land has been used for any hazardous situation as recorded on the risk assessment you completed previously, you must change the above text to outline the risks and what has been done to eliminate or reduce them.
A farm map included herein shows production fields, buildings and uses, portable bathrooms and septic systems, manure storage areas, compost, livestockfacilities, active wells, surface water sources and possible flooding areas. The map may be hand drawn. Remove any of the previous situations that do not apply to your farm. The map also shows the uses for the land immediately adjacent to our farm. Any sources of contamination adjacent to our farm are far enough away from our fields so that they will not affect our crop. Change the previous text to reflect the situation on your farm. If there are any adjacent land uses that could cause a problem (check your risk assessment), list those places and the measures you have taken to minimize or eliminate the problem. One area is present that floods occasionally. If flooding occurs, crops in that area are not harvested. FDA recommendations for determining when and how previously flooded fields can be used for fresh produce crop production are utilized.Remove or modify the previous text to reflect the situation on your farm.
The farm and adjacent areas are routinely inspected to determine the presence of sources of contamination. Records are kept of all activities.
- Sanitary Facilities and Worker Health/Hygiene
When employees are working in the field, toilet and hand washing facilities are provided as required by the current Field Sanitation Standards under the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (as adopted by the State of Hawaii). Generally, agricultural employers must provide one toilet and handwashing facility for every 20 employees, located within a quarter-mile walk, or if not feasible, at the closest point of vehicular access. Toilets and handwashing facilities are not required for employees who do field work for three hours or less each day, including travel to and from work.
Toilet and hand washing facilities are rented from and services by a licensed company. Edit this text if you have your own facilities. All facilities meet the standards required by law. Facilities are placed at least 25 feet from crop areas. If a leak or spill occurs, the area is immediately blocked off and a cleanup procedure is initiated. If any crop is affected, the area is immediately blocked off and the crop therein is removed and discarded properly.
Toilet and hand washing facilities are maintained in accordance with health sanitation practices dictated by federal and state regulations (Hawaii utilizes the federal standards They are inspected, cleaned, sanitized and restocked on a regular basis. Each facility has signage instructing workers to wash their hands prior to returning to work (in a language understood by the workers).
Worker training includes instructions on how to wash hands before beginning or returning to work, after using the toilet, after eating and smoking, after coughing or sneezing and after handling chemicals or other contaminated materials. Workers are observed to ensure they are using proper sanitary practices.
Workers are required to start their work day in clean clothing. If clothes are visibly soiled, workers are required to change into clean clothes before starting work. Short sleeves and short pants are allowed. Open toed shoes are not permitted. Workers are permitted to wear gloves if desired, but the gloves must be clean at the beginning of the day and must be changed when they are soiled to the point where the possibility of contamination exists. Gloves are required when there is a bandaged injury to the hand. Workers are permitted but not required to wear hats, caps, or aprons. However, such items must be reasonably clean so that contamination is not a concern. Employees are instructed not to wear jewelry (including piercings), watches, or other items when working with produce. Plain wedding bands can be worn if they fit snugly. Employees are not permitted to bring personal items into crop fields or packing areas.