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Plan For Success: �How to Write a Farm Food Safety Plan

Annette Wszelaki and Brooke Emery

Professor & Commercial Vegetable Specialist and Produce Safety Assistant

Please come up and enter your email if you brought a computer to work on!

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Outline

What is a farm food safety plan?
Components/sections of FFSP
Deciding what goes in YOUR plan
How to write an SOP
Recordkeeping
Working through the template

We have 2 hrs. to help you get your plan started!

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What is a Farm Food Safety Plan?

All documents/plans/records pertaining to food safety on your farm in one place
Digital, paper, mix of both
Required for GAP audit

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Why Should I Write a Food Safety Plan?

Gets you organized and thinking through what you do on your farm and how you do it!
‘Insurance’ if something happens to you- allows others to do things as you would
Helps you prioritize farm upgrades to reduce risk
Shows you take food safety seriously
Could help expand your market!

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Breaking it Down into Manageable Pieces

Parts of a FFSP:

Farm name and address
Farm description

Commodities grown, farm size, etc.

Contact information for the farm food safety manager
Risk assessment of practices that impact food safety
Practices to reduce those risks
Records… lots and lots of records!

When in doubt, start with the things you know!

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Other Items to Include In Your �Farm Food Safety Plan

Farm maps
Farm policies
SOPs
Training records
Agricultural water test results
Emergency contact information
Supplier and buyer information
Traceability and recall plans
Contact info for contracted services

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Here are a few items that growers may want to include in their Farm Food Safety Plan.
Keeping all this documentation in one place is the best way to be organized for an audit and for implementing the plan. Many growers use binders to keep their paperwork organized, but some have now moved to completely electronic systems. Growers should choose what works best for them.
There are many ways to document practices, such as using a smart phone. Some growers use smart phones to document their actions by taking photos of log sheets and white board notes. They catalogue the photos by date to keep records organized. Remind growers to back up their data daily if using electronic recordkeeping.
Some records are required by the FSMA Produce Safety Rule, such as:

Worker training dates, information covered, who was trained (§ 112.30(b))
Agricultural water test results (§ 112.50 (b)(2))
Agricultural water system inspections (§ 112.50 (b)(1))
Monitoring treatment of biological soil amendments of animal origin (§ 112.60(b)(1)(i) or § 112.60 (b)(2))

Other records are not required by the FSMA Produce Safety Rule but may be a useful part of a farm food safety plan. Some to consider include:

Water change schedules for postharvest uses
Management of sanitary facilities, such as when restrooms are cleaned and restocked
Soil amendment applications
Actions taken to minimize wildlife intrusion into fields

FSMA Produce Safety Rule Subpart O—§§ 112.161–112.167 includes information on recordkeeping requirements for making and keeping records that are required by the FSMA Produce Safety Rule.

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A Few Thoughts about Your Plan…

Only include practices you are doing on your farm
Do not include things you wish you were doing
Does not need to be long or complicated
Pick practices and schedules you know you can do
Focus on risk reduction!

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YOU Can Identify and Reduce Risks!

Each farm is unique

Practices to reduce risks �will be specific to your farm
Best done by someone who knows�the farm and how it operates

Each commodity is different

Grows on the ground or in trees
Harvest by hand or by machine
Single vs. multiple harvests

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Every farm is unique and the risks on the farm will be specific to each operation.
Developing a Farm Food Safety Plan is best done by someone on the farm (most likely the grower!)—because they know the farm best and are capable of assessing risks on the farm. Growers know about the agricultural water, soil amendments, and harvest practices they use.
The commodities grown on the farm will also impact the assessment of risks and practices that are included in the Farm Food Safety Plan. Unique produce characteristics such as netted skin or smooth, where the crop grows (e.g., on the ground or in a tree) and past food safety concerns may impact what practices are implemented to reduce risks.
The key thing for growers to know and understand is that they can assess risks and implement practices that reduce risks. Remember, the focus is on risk reduction, not risk elimination.

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Writing Your Plan

Today we are going to follow the provided template
Want to do it on the computer? Download the template from https://extension.umn.edu/safety/growing-safe-food#plan-templates-and-log-sheets-1355910

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Which Sections are Applicable?

Likely not every section of this template will apply directly to your farm
Cross out or remove pages that are not applicable

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Decision Trees Help You Assess Risk

Provide record templates and SOPs by topic
There are many templates available to assist in recordkeeping
Remember to always personalize templates to your operation!

https://cals.cornell.edu/national-good-agricultural-practices-program/resources/educational-materials/decision-trees

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Getting a USDA GAP Audit?

It can be helpful to you and your auditor to put your FFSP in the same order as the GAP checklist

https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/GAPChecklistVersion3.pdf

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How to Write an SOP

https://cornell.app.box.com/s/rj7wj2dta5bflua783jl45ctjqj3c7w9

‘Standard Operating Procedure’

Ex. how to properly dilute sanitizer in wash water, how to create a tracking/shipping label

Instruction sheet for practices on the farm

Should be concise, easy to understand

Can include pictures!

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How to Write an SOP

How to know it is an effective SOP- write it, give it to someone who has never done the task before, see if they do it correctly
How do you like your coffee? Details matter!
Aside from living in the FFSP, can be posted around farm where needed

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Recordkeeping

Many records required by FSMA/GAP audit
Can use a template or make your own
If using paper, keep papers near where they will be needed on farm then move to FFSP when filled out
If using digital, can have QR codes, etc. on farm that link to spreadsheet

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Recordkeeping Tool- Templates

Find templates by topic on decision tree website: https://cals.cornell.edu/national-good-agricultural-practices-program/resources/educational-materials/decision-trees

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Recordkeeping Tool: Google Forms

Free with a gmail account
Customizable- create questions for yourself
Responses link to a spreadsheet with date automatically recorded

Google Form Instructions

tiny.utk.edu/farmgoogleforms

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Recordkeeping: Google Forms

Example response form in Google Drive
Can look for patterns, problems

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Start at the Beginning

Start easy! Fill in your farm name, location, etc.
A picture is worth 1,000 words!
Can be hand drawn, screenshots from google maps, etc.

Photos: University of Minnesota Extension Food Safety Plan For You Templates and Log Sheets

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Farm Map

Should show all buildings, roads, fields, water features
Indicate North
Give approximate distance to nearest towns and major roadways
Indicate livestock vs. produce areas

From ‘FSP4U’

by Michele Schermann, UMN

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Examples of identifying points on your map

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Mission Statement

Reminds you, your family, your employees, your customers, and yes, an auditor, of why you are doing what you do.
Your statement should briefly and generally address your company's commitment to food safety, food quality, food sanitation and worker hygiene.

From ‘FSP4U’

by Michele Schermann, UMN

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Example Mission Statement

Management and employees at the [your farm name] are committed to producing and marketing a safe product through good agricultural and handling practices that focus on principles of food safety and quality.

From ‘FSP4U’

by Michele Schermann, UMN

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Farm Description

Use descriptive words to write a paragraph or two about your farm
Mention how long you and your family have had the farm and how it started, include:

the number of family members and hired workers (seasonal and part-time)
descriptions of buildings
crops grown (including how many acres of each crop and the number of trees in the orchard, etc.)
machinery and vehicles

Include photographs

From ‘FSP4U’

by Michele Schermann, UMN

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Take 10 minutes to write your farm description and mission statement

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Worker Health & Hygiene

Farm workers often only person to handle produce before the consumer

People on the farm can carry and spread human pathogens

Proper hygiene practices can lower risk of contamination

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Worker Health & Hygiene

Training workers, providing portable handwash stations in fields, having proper breakroom and restroom facilities, stocking first aid kits, and having written policies will all improve human hygiene on the farm.

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Worker Health & Hygiene Sections

Employee training may be required for GAPS/FSMA
No employees? Find training for yourself!

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Reminder to change sections in red
You can change words in black as well!

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Worker health & hygiene continued
UT has signs available to print
Wash hands for 20 seconds! Wash often!

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Worker Health & Hygiene Sections

This section continues until page 22 that says ‘Part 1. Farm Review’

Work on worker health and hygiene sections for the next 5 minutes!

Worker health & hygiene will be a theme throughout the FFSP

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Take 5 minutes to work on the worker health and hygiene section

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Water Quality

Water is the #1 factor in contamination of fresh produce
Singular critical point capable of amplifying an error in management during production, harvest, or postharvest

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Factors in Water Quality?

Source
Application Method
Timing
Testing
Treating

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Water Use

Write your water source
Do you test?
Do you treat?
Other factors?
Water will be discussed in other sections as well

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Example Water Test

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Animals on the Farm

Animals can spread pathogens through feces and saliva on farm
Keep wildlife and farm animals out of production areas as much as possible.
Manage rodents and birds in packing houses and storage areas.
For grazing animals, follow the 90/120 day rule (last day animals are present) to harvest.

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Notice Contamination from Animals?

Have a no-harvest zone plan
Will be crop dependent

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Animals on Farm

How are you keeping animals out of the field? Includes wildlife, livestock, pets

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Animals/Wildlife

Reminder to skip any section that does not apply to you! No fence, no problem!

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Wildlife

Who visits your farm?
When?
What do you do about it?

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Take 10 minutes to finish part 1

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Will cover some of same principles as part 1
Focused on risk reduction at harvest

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Harvest Tool GAPS

Use sharp knives and pruners
Spray bottles for sanitizer and water
Bins should be clean and have smooth insides
Keep bins off soil
Keep harvest tools out of soil

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Harvest

What are you using during harvest?
Ex. Plastic bins lower risk than wood

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Protecting Produce on the Move

Inspect trucks prior to loading to insure cleanliness and proper refrigeration.
Identify prior loads hauled in the truck. Trucks that have hauled raw animal products should be avoided due to risk of cross contamination.
Document truck temperature, cleanliness, and state of product at time of shipment.

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Harvest

Harvest practices cont.

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Harvest

Harvest practices cont.
Brings us back to traceability

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Take 10 minutes to work on part 2

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Traceability- What Day? What Field?

Lot identification aids in tracing back any problems that develop.
It is always better to be proactive and prepared then reactive and confused.
Trace 1 step forward, 1 step back

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Back to beginning of template
How will you identify produce once it leaves the field?
Make it make sense to YOU!

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Take 5 minutes to devise a lot code plan

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Part 3- Packing house

Similar to part 2, will cover hygiene, specific tasks.

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Part 4- Storage and Transport

Similar topics covered again.

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Let’s Review

FFSP will help you be organized and prepared
YOU know your farm best, personalize all templates
Diagrams/pictures don’t have to be fancy- can be hand drawn!
Include farm maps, potential risks, mitigation practices, all farm policies, SOPs, and records

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KEEP GOING! �WE WILL BE WALKING AROUND TO HELP!

Contact info for questions after the workshop:

Annette Wszelaki- annettew@utk.edu

Professor and Commercial Vegetable Specialist

Brooke Emery- bemery@utk.edu

Produce Safety Assistant