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Best Produce Safety Practices for Boutique Farms: A Self-Assessment Tool

College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences

Best Produce Safety Practices for Boutique Farms: A Self-Assessment Tool

Foodborne sicknesses related to fresh produce can be mitigated during production and in the post-harvest period using Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) to decrease the risks of product contamination. Farms can use GAPs to keep organisms that cause human sickness, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, away from produce. Unfortunately, controlling each source of microbial contamination on the farm is impossible, but numerous things can be done to decrease the dangers.

Contamination can happen at any point within the flow of food from the farm to the dinner table. Our focus here is the pathway from your farm to community farmers’ markets. Looking into the current GAPs and applying them to your farm can reduce the risks of foodborne sickness to your customers.

Here are a few preliminary questions for producers to address as they develop their farm’s produce safety plan:

Worker Hygiene

Is hand washing a priority for you, your family, and everyone who works on your farm?

Best practices: All farmworkers must wash their hands appropriately before starting work, after using the toilet, and before and after eating

Are clean toilets and hand-washing stations available to everybody working on the farm, including family members?

Best practices: According to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA), toilet facilities must be available within ¼ mile of the harvesting areas. The portable toilet must be located away from the produce crop field and from product-handling areas. The bathroom should be monitored for good daily sanitation. They should have adequate supplies of toilet paper, soap in the dispensers, clean water, and single-use paper towels.

Do farmworkers use bare hands or wear non-disposable gloves when handling produce?

Best practices: Workers must wash their hands and change to new disposable gloves, particularly after eating, smoking, or using the restroom. They must not use non-disposable gloves when processing fruits and vegetables.

Production Practices

Do you use irrigation water from a pond or other water source that has daily visits by livestock, domesticated or wild animals?

A farm irrigation system watering a field.

Best Practices: Irrigation water is from a municipal, treated water source or a groundwater well. The well must be in excellent condition, appropriately constructed, and well-capped. The well must be tested annually to make sure it meets FDA requirements.

Do you irrigate with sprinklers using surface water that could be contaminated by human or animal activities?

Best Practices: Avoid plant wetting by using either drip irrigation or furrow irrigation.

Do you read pesticide labels and follow the directions for use? Do you ever exceed recommended application rates?

Best Practices: Pesticides are applied according to label directions. Over-application of pesticides can be hazardous to the environment.

Before applying pesticides, do you consider the weather, or do you spray on a windy day?

Best Practices: Avoid all spraying if the wind speed is greater than 10 miles per hour. Spraying should be postponed if heavy rain is in the forecast within 24 hours.

Do you inspect crops for insects before applying insecticides, or do you spray insecticides according to a spray calendar?

Best practices: Crops are inspected for pests during critical periods of crop and pest development. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices are followed. Pesticides are only applied when pest populations are enough to cause economic damage.

Do you apply manure to a crop field less than 60 days before the harvest of produce?

Best practices: Manure is applied and incorporated into the soil at least 120 days before the harvest of a product (unless composted first). No manure is used to side-dress produce crops in the field.

Do you use raw manure to produce foliar fertilizer or “tea” applied to the soil or plant less than 120 days before harvesting the crop?

Best practices: No manure teas are used.

When composting manure, do you keep an accurate record showing that compost piles achieve a high temperature (131 - 160 degrees F.) for at least five days, and that the piles have been aerated or “turned” at least five times?

Best practices: Compost producers should keep temperature and aeration records to ensure compost is finished according to the guidelines stated in the question above.

Do you keep records of applications of fertilizers, organic amendments such as manure, and pesticide applications for each produce crop?

Best practices: All records are maintained.

Post-Harvest Handling

Are harvest aids, such as knives, picking containers, buckets, and storage bins, washed, rinsed, or sanitized only at the beginning of the season or only occasionally afterward?

Best practices: All harvest aids are washed, rinsed, and sanitized at the start of each work session, and after breaks as needed.

Do you have a standard for scraping produce on your farm operation? Do you discard produce with evidence of animal feces or feeding?

Best practices: Workers are trained to avoid harvesting bruised or dropped fruits and any product with evidence of animal or bird feces or feeding marks.

Do you pack produce for market in used cardboard cartons or in wooden or plastic bins or boxes that are not washed, rinsed, or sanitized before reuse?

Best practices: New cardboard cartons are used for all packing for market. Previously used wooden or plastic bins are inspected and washed, rinsed and sanitized before each use.

Animal Management

Have you made and implemented an effort to exclude wild animals from produce fields or irrigation pounds?

Best practices: Wild animals are excluded (as much as possible) using fencing and other active deterrents. Old equipment and containers that attract wild animals are discarded. Excess water is eliminated. Weeds and brush are mowed.

Are pets and farm animals free to roam parking areas, produce stands, and farm markets?

Best practices: Pets, including farm animals, are never permitted in packing or produce marketing areas.

Have you noticed rodent and/or bird activity in the packing area and not done anything about it?

Best practices: All storage and packing areas should be inspected weekly for rodents, birds, and insects. Pest control procedures (traps, screening, and doors) should be used to exclude or remove the pests.

Marketing

Is produce washed with clean water before transporting it to the market for sale?

Best practices: Water for washing produce and making ice is from municipal or inspected well sources. Wash water is changed as needed. Chlorine or another disinfectant is added.

Is the vehicle used for transporting produce to the market for sale clean before loading produce?

Best practices: Before loading produce into the truck, the vehicle is inspected for proper cleaning, sanitizing, odors, and debris.

When producing samples at the market, are samples cut with clean and sanitized utensils, or are samples often cut with a pocket knife?

A plate of chopped fruit with tooth picks inserted in the slices for patrons to sample.

Best practices: All utensils used for cutting samples, including the knives and cutting surface, are sanitized before use. Everyone preparing or serving samples is trained to wash their hands properly and to use clean, sanitized utensils. Clean disposable gloves are worn, so no bare hands contact samples.

Do customers sample produce with bare hands?

Best practices: Single service utensils such as toothpicks or plastic utensils are provided for customers who choose to taste the samples.