We are now in the hottest time of the year, the dog days of summer. This will change soon, and those in the food and agriculture industries look forward to this time of the year with equal parts anticipation and dread. The change in the season will soon mean longer shadows, cooler temperatures, and football. It also means long hours and lots of moving parts to juggle as customer orders begin to ramp up for the Holidays and the all-important fall harvest begins.
…being harvest ready also applies to processing facilities.
Being harvest ready isn’t just a farmer thing. The folks in the know realize that being harvest ready also applies to processing facilities. Hullers and dryers, dehydrators, storage facilities, and packing plants must also be ready to safely receive, handle and process the upcoming crop. The keys to being harvest ready are the same as being a safe food provider. It all begins with proper training, sanitation, maintenance, and a review of your facility and processes.
- Make sure current and new employees are trained properly for working in a food processing plant, go over Good Manufacturing Processes (GMPs) with them and document this training.
- Provide worker safety orientation for current and new employees. Proper first aid training should be consideration in the facility’s GMPs.
- Have an inspection performed on transport trailers prior to their dispatch and have verification that they have been properly sanitized.
- Inspect transfer equipment (augers, belts, conveyance systems, etc.). Much of this equipment may have sat dormant for many months. Verify that they have been sanitized and are in good working order.
- Inspect and sanitize storage bins and silos. These too may have sat dormant. Proper sanitation will minimize the possibility of cross contamination. Review inventories with staff.
- Perform an in house audit or review to verify that all the machinery is in good working order and that equipment modifications and additions will be in place before harvest.
- Review the facility’s inventory of protective gear and sanitation supplies. Harvest is not the time to run out of hairnets or sanitizer.
- Review or implement an Environmental Monitoring Program. An Environmental Monitoring Program will verify and validate that the sanitation program is effective and will highlight areas of concern.
- Review plant security and emergency protocol. There will be lots of additional people and moving parts this fall. It pays to vigilant in this day and age.
this upcoming harvest … will be the first harvest under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)
A final note, this upcoming harvest will also be a historical one as it will be the first harvest under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The cornerstone to FSMA is documentation. For some, it will now be a legal requirement for many of the aforementioned programs and processes to be fully outlined and documented. For others, it will be a very good practice as safe food production enters a new era.
