Good Agricultural Practices

Good Agricultural Practices, or GAPs for short, are a fundamental part of farm food production. They also form the backbone of the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act. Training is essential if you want to deliver safe farm food and Penn State Extension offers all the necessary resources to help you implement good agricultural practices for farm food.

How to Develop a Food Safety Plan

Having a food safety plan helps producers meet the requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act. It’s also essential if buyers of your farm produce require third party GAP audits. Penn State Extension offers a workshop that is designed to help growers write a USDA Harmonized GAP food safety plan. There are also a series of templates, checklists, and logs, as well as food safety plan examples, to further help producers assess risks and develop a framework to reduce them.

In general, the food safety plan is divided into several sections. The first is a brief description of the farm that also identifies the person responsible for food safety. The following sections describe what procedures are to be followed, including farm worker health and hygiene basic rules.

Many of Penn State Extension’s resources are also available in Spanish, such as the Food Safety Field Training Flip Chart for Fresh Produce Handlers.

Farm Food Safety GAPs: Growing Harvesting, Packaging, and Transport

Farm Food Safety GAPs cover all aspects of the food supply chain, from the field to the end consumer. Contamination can happen anywhere along the chain, and it’s the growers’ responsibility to minimize food safety risks as much as possible. Things to be aware of and protect against include the safe use of agricultural water, keeping produce safe with sanitary washing procedures, and best practices to eliminate food-borne illnesses. Basic sanitary procedures are also a fundamental part of keeping packing areas clean and sanitary.

Mushroom Production GAPs

Almost two-thirds of white button mushrooms consumed in the United States come from Pennsylvania mushroom farms. White button mushrooms are not the only crop, as growers also produce other varieties such as Oyster and Shiitake.

Mushroom production comes under the FSMA and farmers are required to follow Good Agricultural Practices. Penn State Extension provides a range of mushroom GAP audits and FSMA resources to help you meet the requirements. The resources include a webinar relating to sanitary and design considerations for mushroom packing and slicing operations.

FSMA includes several different rules, applicable to most farm food production operations. People who own, manage, or work in mushroom factories, however, are affected by one rule in particular. Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption requirements include the control of potential food safety hazards in areas where contamination is more likely to occur. These include farm worker hygiene, crop contact water used for irrigation, sanitation conditions, and the use of soil supplements such as mushroom substrate composting.

Listeria contamination is a big concern in the farm food industry, but there have been no reported cases of foodborne illness connected to mushrooms contaminated with Listeria. It is typically found in soft-ripened cheese, under-pasteurized milk, pre-cooked meat, and poultry. Mushroom growers, however, still need to be aware of this very dangerous microorganism and be able to take the necessary steps to prevent contamination in growing and packing environments.