Midwest Vegetable Guide - 2022 - 34

Produce Food Safety
Nature's International Certification
Services (NICS)
224 E. State Highway 56
Viroqua, WI 54665
Phone: (608) 637-7080
Fax: (608) 637-7460
Email: nics@naturesinternational.com
naturesinternational.com
Oklahoma Department of Agriculture,
Food and Forestry Organic Certification
2800 N. Lincoln Blvd.
Oklahoma City, OK 73152
Phone: (405) 522-5924
Email: jeff.stearns@ag.ok.gov
ag.ok.gov/divisions/food-safety
Oregon Tilth Certified Organic
PO Box 368
301 S.W. 4th St., Ste. 110
Corvallis, OR 97333
Phone: (503) 378-0690
Phone: (877) 378-0690 (toll free)
Email: organic@tilth.org
tilth.org
Organic Crop Improvement Association
(OCIA)
1340 North Cotner Blvd.
Lincoln, NE 68505
Phone: (402) 477-2323
Fax: (402) 477-4325
Email: info@ocia.org
ocia.org
Ohio Ecological Food and Farm
Association
41 Croswell Rd.
Columbus, OH 43214
Phone: (614) 262-2022
Email: organic@oeffa.org
oeffa.org
Pro-Cert Organic Systems, Ltd.
2311 Elm Tree Rd.
Cambray, ON K0M 1E0
Phone: (705) 374-5602
Fax: (705) 374-5604
Email: ifoebo@pro-cert.org
pro-cert.org
Quality Assurance International
4370 La Jolla Village Dr., Ste. 300
San Diego, CA 92122
Phone: (858) 791-3531
Email: info@qai-inc.com
qai-inc.com
Quality Certification Services (QCS)
5700 SW 34th
St., Ste. 349
Gainesville, FL 32608
Phone: (352) 377-0133
Email: qcs@qcsinfo.org
qcsinfo.org
Produce Food Safety
Reviewed by Phil Tocco, Londa Nwadike, and Ben Phillips -
Sept 2021
Produce food safety aims to reduce the risk of produce
contamination by human pathogens or other contaminants
during field production and postharvest handling. Good
Agricultural Practices (GAPs) present a set of guidelines and
practices that can prevent or reduce the risk of produce
contamination by a foodborne pathogen, or other
contaminant, in the field and during postharvest handling. To
reduce the risk of contamination by a foodborne pathogen,
vegetable growers should adopt GAPs, paying particular
attention to water management, waste (manure), worker
sanitation/hygiene, and wildlife. All growers should utilize
Good Agricultural Practices, but only certain buyers require
GAPs certification and paying for a third party audit.
Growers of a certain size who grow, harvest, pack or hold
certain produce types must adopt particular GAPs to be in
compliance with current Federal produce safety guidelines
under the Food Safety Modernization Act Produce Safety
Rule (FSMA PSR). The law codifies many GAP standards
and follows the same general outline of hazards seen in
GAPs. Rules regarding water used in the growing, harvest,
packing and storage of fresh produce are under currently
under review and will be enforced in the future. The Purdue
Extension Publication, Food Safety for Fruit and Vegetable
Farms: Good Agricultural Practices for Fruit and Vegetable
Farms, gives an introduction to produce food safety, and is
available at edustore.purdue.edu.
Water Management
Water can be a major source of contamination in crop
production. It is important to make sure that water coming in
contact with the crop is of adequate quality for its intended
use. Growers should monitor the quality (presence of
bacteria) of irrigation and process (postharvest) water through
testing.
34
Midwest Veg Guide 2022
http://qai-inc.com/ http://naturesinternational.com/ https://qcsinfo.org/ https://ag.ok.gov/divisions/food-safety/ http://tilth.org/ http://ocia.org/ http://oeffa.org/ http://edustore.purdue.edu http://pro-cert.org/
Midwest Vegetable Guide - 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Midwest Vegetable Guide - 2022
