Farm Food Safety Practices

Produce Traceability

Brubecker Farm

LB

Low

On any given day farm operators wear many hats…manager, weed or insect specialist, marketer, hand laborer, veterinarian, facilities designer, or labor supervisor. Farm operators are also spouses, parents, partners, in-laws, friends, and community leaders. Some roles and the responsibilities associated with them change through time.

Field Sanitation and Hygiene

Brown Family Farms

L Brown

Medium

En 2015 fundó la Asociación We the People Growers (WTPGA). Su primera visión era crear una comunidad por medio de crear jardines. Cambió en 2017 cuando arrendó ¼ acre de suelo de una iglesia en Ypsilanti Township. La visión de Parson era crear un sistema agrícola sostenible para apoyar un mano de obra de hombres y mujeres regresando a sus casas después de estar encarcelados. Desde entonces, WTPGA ha contratado ciudadanos regresando, han vendido productos con éxito en mercados agrícolas y re

Pesticides and Crop Protection Materials

Silveri

Jennifer

Low

Work with the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) Technician at the local conservation district to complete a free and confidential on farm environmental risk assessment. With the MAEAP technician we learned to identify risks and find ways to minimize them to come into compliance with best management practices for voluntary stewardship of natural resources and pollution

Produce Packing – Field or Packing House

Mighty Oak Orchards

Jordan DeVries

low

The use of biological originated materials, such as Streptomycin, Bacillius spp. and Kasugamycin for disease control in fruit crops poses unique consideration for sanitation practices for food safety. Because these products are biological in their origin, pathogen inactivation in the equipment that would be used to apply them requires careful use of food safe cholorine bleach or peroxyacetic acid. Sprayers must be washed after sanitation procedures, as any residue of chorine or hydrogen peroxide risks decreasing the population of beneficial microorganisms or binding or oxidating active sites the antibiotic compound within the spray tank, making them less effective. The rinsate resulting from this wash process is considered a pesticide, requiring collection into a holding tank and pickup by a septage hauler. Aqueous Ozone, or O3 oxygen produced through electrolysis of atmospheric O2, which is then bubbled into water through an air stone, is a promising decontamination alternative to chlorine bleach or peroxyacetic acid. In laboratory conditions, this technology has proved capable of achieving similar experimentally-derived decontamination results without the use of a chemical sanitizing agent (1). When dissolved in water, O3 is harmless to users and simply off-gasses to the atmosphere in a matter of hours. Leaving no chemical residue allows for alleviating the step of rinsing the spray tank prior to the use of biological origin disease control products. This short retention time presents a problem in the need for farmers to produce and use the aqueous ozone on-site. Mighty Oak Orchards will document on the effectiveness of microorganism deactivation using aqueous ozone by using ATP testing strips provided to Alliance Analytical Labs in Coopersville, MI. Additionally, aqueous ozone also presents an ability for use in postharvest decontamination, specifically for field container cleaning and sanitation. This technology is a solution that would make it easier for farmers to clean and sanitize containers directly touching raw produce in its ready to eat form, after washing or packing/grading. In the past Mighty Oak Orchards took containers to a container wash area at Little Red Organics farm to be dipped in a water and food-grade Sanidate peroxyacetic acid solution. With on-site aqueous ozone, containers have the potential to be cleaned in the field or in areas without wastewater holding for the used sanitizer solution. It has been reported by some that aqueous ozone is also useful in decontaminating surfaces of raw produce. While promising, this should not take place of preventative produce safety practices; therefore, this project will only look at the potential for aqueous ozone to decontaminate the inside of spray equipment and raw produce handling containers. To replicate this innovation, a grower or packer would need to purchase an Ozone generator. The NatureKleen 120V ozone generator is a fairly basic, homeowner specific model. It is available on Amazon.com for about $220.00. If a grower wanted a more technologically advanced product, the Tersano Lotus Pro stabilized aqueous ozone sanitizing system can also be purchased through Amazon.com for $1,000.00, which requires an ozone cartridge that cost $379.00. With the aqueous ozone system of their choice, the grower would simply produce enough aqueous ozone to fill the sprayer tank or a dunk-tank for container washing. They would need to place the aqueous ozone in the tank for long enough for the Ozone to affect any pathogenic microorganisms, a process that should take about 30 minutes, although the ozone remains dissolved in the water for about 6 hours and is still effective at cleaning, but not sanitizing, during that time. Finally, after a 6 hour period, the ozone water can be discharged from the sprayer or dunk-tank onto the ground, preferably away from any raw produce.  1) Marino M, Maifreni M, Baggio A and Innocente N (2018) Inactivation of Foodborne Bacteria Biofilms by Aqueous and Gaseous Ozone. Front. Microbiol. 9:2024.

Manure, Compost and Biosolids

WIA

Silveri

low

Contact your local USDA Service Center

Other Food Safety Risks

WIA

Silveri

low

Food Safety Technicans offer free technical assistance for farmers. Calll your local conservation district or find youe technican here https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdard/FY12_Safe_Food_Risk_Assessment_Map_382014_7.pdf                                                                                                   You can also use a free online program that is similar to turbo tax. You answer the onscreen prompts and it spits out a food safety plan in the end. Available in Spanish and English.  http://onfarmfoodsafety.org/create-a-food-safety-manual/

Pesticides and Crop Protection Materials

WIA

Silveri

low

1. Work with the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP) Technician at the local conservation district to complete a free and confidential on farm environmental risk assessment. With the MAEAP technician we learned to identify risks and find ways to minimize them to come into compliance with best management practices for voluntary stewardship of natural resources and pollution prevention on the farm. MAEAP focuses a lot on pesticide use, storage, application, spill prevention, emergency planning, drift management, protection of natural resources and regulatory compliance. MAEAP also helped asses integrity of water sources, irrigation issues that can create risks to contamination through irrigation water, nutrient application and record keeping. 2. We took the action list created through working with our MAEAP technician, which identified our environmental risks on the farm to apply for cost share through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Environmental Quality Incentives Program at our local USDA Service Center. We applied for costshare to reduce risks to soil, water quality (which impact public health and food safety) by implementing improved Nutrient and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) management on the farm. NRCS staff worked with us to utilize nutrient analysis from soil and compost to create nutrient management recommendations that prevent overapplication of nutrients/potential pollutants/contaminates. They also worked with us to inventory and assess our use of organic pesticides and ensure we were using them properly for the intended crops, environment and pest, keeping required records, minimizing offsite drift or movement, complying with labeled directions for human safety and protection of natural resources, proactive spill prevention and emergency response planning.