Postharvest Handling of Dates
Hello everyone,
I have a question regarding the post harvest handling of dates, specifically the packing process. Is it recommended to wash dates with an antimicrobial solution and if it is, what solution would be suitable? We currently fog our dates with potable water and then we clean them with moist rags before sorting and packaging. The rags are washed with a laundry detergant in a conventional washing machine during 2 hour intervals or as-needed. Is this an appropriate method of washing dates? What concerns me is the abscence of an antimicrobial wash when washing the dates and the use of a laundry detergant for the rags.
Aslo, employees use rags to clean the conveyer belts and other food-contact surfaces during production and these rags are submerged in plain water with no sanitizing solution and like the rags used to clean the dates, they are washed as needed and returned to the buckets filled with just potable water. I think a sanitizer solution would be ideal, what would be recommended for the rags in the buckets and at what concentration?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance.
Can someone please help me?
Thanks
Dear socal,
I presume that the end-product is ready-to-eat.
Yr description of the use of rags sounds, to me, hygienically questionable in many ways. I would personally recommend you to avoid use of rags altogether for the food / food contact surfaces. If somehow unavoidable, i suggest to at least validate their BPC acceptability, do not re-use, and dispose at appropriate intervals.
I have no direct experience of date processing and it is not quite clear as to the technological level of yr operation. I deduce there is a majority of manual handling. This would normally require substantial hygienic control, eg environment, equipment, personnel, for a safe RTE end-product.
As far as initial use of rags for product cleaning is concerned, I note from da3 (below) that this is not unusual for date cleaning purposes. If unavoidable, the sequence in da1 seems a little superior (to me) to the one you describe although maybe still having significant hygienic risks, even with subsequent antimicrobial treatment.
As far as more advanced processing / use of antimicrobial chemicals is concerned some typical options are in the sections on “dates” / “sanitizers” in the articles below. A typical example (da8) is –
Wash and Hydrocooling Water
All water which comes in contact with produce for washing or hydrocooling must be safe to drink. Water should contain between 100 and 150 parts per million total chlorine and have a pH of between 6 and 7.5. Chlorine use prevents the potential for cross contamination of all produce in the washing or hydrocooling system, it will not sterilize the produce. Change the water in dump tanks and hydro-coolers regularly.
Some other refs use much lower levels of free chlorine, eg 1ppm, others use different chemical systems. I suggest that specific advice is obtained for yr product.
da1 - Date Harvest & Tutorial (Pictorial).pdf 9.48MB 20 downloads
da2 - date production.pdf 1.05MB 25 downloads
da3 - postharvest handling.pdf 4.89MB 30 downloads
da4 - postharvest sanitation,sec.9 - 2013.pdf 184.83KB 19 downloads
da5 - cleaning and sanitising fresh produce.pdf 518.97KB 34 downloads
da6 - minimising microbial contamination on fresh produce, 2006.pdf 117.16KB 24 downloads
da7 - FAO, processing tropical fruits vegetables.pdf 966.7KB 25 downloads
da8 - chapter 11, FAO, Small-Scale Postharvest Handling Practices.pdf 67.77KB 23 downloads
Rgds / Charles.C
Dear socal,
I presume that the end-product is ready-to-eat.
Yr description of the use of rags sounds, to me, hygienically questionable in many ways. I would personally recommend you to avoid use of rags altogether for the food / food contact surfaces. If somehow unavoidable, i suggest to at least validate their BPC acceptability, do not re-use, and dispose at appropriate intervals.
I have no direct experience of date processing and it is not quite clear as to the technological level of yr operation. I deduce there is a majority of manual handling. This would normally require substantial hygienic control, eg environment, equipment, personnel, for a safe RTE end-product.
As far as initial use of rags for product cleaning is concerned, I note from da3 (below) that this is not unusual for date cleaning purposes. If unavoidable, the sequence in da1 seems a little superior (to me) to the one you describe although maybe still having significant hygienic risks, even with subsequent antimicrobial treatment.
As far as more advanced processing / use of antimicrobial chemicals is concerned some typical options are in the sections on “dates” / “sanitizers” in the articles below. A typical example (da8) is –
Some other refs use much lower levels of free chlorine, eg 1ppm, others use different chemical systems. I suggest that specific advice is obtained for yr product.
da1 - Date Harvest & Tutorial (Pictorial).pdf
da3 - postharvest handling.pdf
da4 - postharvest sanitation,sec.9 - 2013.pdf
da5 - cleaning and sanitising fresh produce.pdf
da6 - minimising microbial contamination on fresh produce, 2006.pdf
da7 - FAO, processing tropical fruits vegetables.pdf
da8 - chapter 11, FAO, Small-Scale Postharvest Handling Practices.pdf
Rgds / Charles.C
Thank you so very much! This info was very helpful.
Dear Socal,
We are performing an experimental study with University of Florence (Italy) concerning post-harvest pest control on Siwi and Deglet Nour dates using electromagnetic fields. Should you be interested in a collaboration please write me at my email address
Best regards
Ferdinando