August, 1999
Industry must take steps to assure the safety of
fresh produce
By John E. Rushing
North Carolina State University
These days, foodborne illnesses make big news. Some consumers seem to think
that our food supply is getting more dangerous every day. In the past, news
about foodborne illness seemed to be confined to canned foods, meat and
poultry, seafoods and milk.
An outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 from fresh fruit pieces in 1996 made
us aware that fresh fruit and vegetable products were not immune to the
concerns. Since then, numerous outbreaks have been reported. The FDA has
proposed a new mandatory food safety management system called "Hazard
Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)" for fresh juice manufacturers.
There have been calls for increased regulation of imports and domestic produce
by Congress and consumers.
In lieu of new mandatory rules, the FDA has worked with the produce industry
to design guidance in a new document named "Guide to Minimize Microbial
Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables." Implementation
of these guidelines is voluntary, and is a nationwide (even international)
priority for the industry and Extension.
If the industry is to continue to avoid new mandatory regulations, the voluntary
implementation of these guidelines is necessary. From a public health point-of-view,
these are necessary to reduce foodborne illness nationally and internationally.
From our industry point-of-view, these guidelines are just exercising common
decency by those who produce food for others.
Recommended practices to minimize microbial contamination will be most effective
when adapted to specific operations, because of the diversity of agricultural
practices and produce commodities. The guidelines do not specifically address
other areas of food safety concerns such as pesticide residues, other chemical
hazards, or physical hazards. They focus on risk reduction, not risk elimination.
Current technologies cannot eliminate all the potential food safety hazards
associated with fresh produce that will be eaten raw. North Carolina's Cooperative
Extension Service is in a unique position to provide assistance to producers
and handlers of raw produce to minimize these risks.
The guidelines focus on developing the most appropriate good agricultural
and management practices for each operation based upon certain basic principles.
These principles include:
1. Prevention of microbial contamination of fresh produce is favored over reliance on corrective actions once contamination has occurred.
2. To minimize microbial food safety hazard in fresh produce, growers, packers, or shippers should use good agricultural and management practices in those areas over which they have control.
3. Fresh produce can become microbiologically contaminated at any point along the farm to table chain. The major source of microbial contamination of fresh produce is associated with human or animal feces.
4. Whenever water comes in contact with produce, its quality dictates the potential for contamination. We must minimize the potential for microbial contamination of water used with fresh produce.
5. Practices using animal manure or municipal biosolids waste should be managed closely to minimize the potential for microbial contamination of fresh produce.
6. Worker hygiene and sanitation practices during production, harvesting, storing, packing, and transport play a critical role in minimizing the potential for microbial contamination of fresh produce.
7. For agricultural practices, the producer or handler should follow all applicable local, state, and federal laws and regulations, or corresponding or similar laws, regulations or standards for operators outside the U.S.
8. Accountability at all levels of the agricultural environment
(farm, packing facility, distribution center, and transport operations)
is important to a successful food safety program. There must be qualified
personnel and effective monitoring to ensure that all elements of the program
function correctly and help track produce back through distribution channels
to the producer.
The guidelines are available on the web under www.fda.gov. We need to mobilize industry and
its trade organizations along with the resources of the Cooperative Extension
Service and regulatory agencies to make our produce the safest we are able
to supply.
