Produce wash for distribution center

Hi there IFSQN community;

We have a small fresh produce facility where growers send/sell their fresh produce to for further distribution to commercial clients.

There are tropical fruits, herbs, limes, lettuce, onions, potatoes and other root crops.

From microbe testing, evidence of salmonella was found on the skin of one type of produce, so we decided to put in a chlorine wash of 25ppm free chlorine, using sodium hypochloride and water.

Question, is this a CCP or just a CP as from the risk assessment we did, we determined it was low as we've had no reports of food-borne illnesses reported?

Thank you very much.

Dion

Do you have a HACCP plan?

Hi there IFSQN community;

 

We have a small fresh produce facility where growers send/sell their fresh produce to for further distribution to commercial clients.

 

There are tropical fruits, herbs, limes, lettuce, onions, potatoes and other root crops.

 

From microbe testing, evidence of salmonella was found on the skin of one type of produce, so we decided to put in a chlorine wash of 25ppm free chlorine, using sodium hypochloride and water.

 

Question, is this a CCP or just a CP as from the risk assessment we did, we determined it was low as we've had no reports of food-borne illnesses reported?

 

Thank you very much.

 

Dion

In addition to post 2 -

Is there a FS Standard invoved, eg BRC, SQF ?

(It relates to choice of CCP, CP etc.)

Just to illustrate, here is a Canadian haccp plan -

HACCP Generic Model for Fresh produce, Ready-To-Eat Fresh-Cut Vegetables, CFIA.pdf   427.08KB   47 downloads

Thanks Charles,

We are developing the FSP (Food Safety Program) based on the Codex HACCP Standard (CAC/RCP 1-1969)

Thanks Charles,

 

We are developing the FSP (Food Safety Program) based on the Codex HACCP Standard (CAC/RCP 1-1969)

Codex makes no use of CPs so you will only have to determine CCPs.

Unfortunately, afaik, Codex haccp also makes little reference to PRPs which are more or less mandatory in Modern haccp. (eg see my example in post 3). Maybe have a look at NACMCF's older list of PRPs,(free) or, more recently,  ISO22002-1 (not free)

Without knowing what type of produce you washed, I'm curious why you chose 25ppm free chlorine. 100ppm free chlorine is the standard in the US for tomatoes.

Hi Cindy,

We have lemons, limes, broccoli, lettuce, watermelons, pineapples, raspbarries, beans, cabbage, carrots, capsicum, cauliflower, cucumbers, eggplants, ginger, kale, mushrooms, shallots, radish, rocket, baby spinach, sweet corn and tomatoes, herbs (basil, coriander, dill, fennel, mint, parsley, thyme, rosemary)

Yes, quite a list I know. The 25ppm was from an internet source I cannot find anymore unfortunately.

Thank you

On your chlorine levels, the ppm is lower than is typical for fresh produce (in the U.S. anyway).  Some factors that you may want to consider:

You have a lot of different vegetables running through the facility.  They will all have different microbial loads which would impact your need for specific chlorine levels; very generally speaking you can have up to 200-ppm in produce wash (at least for the vegetables that I am aware of).  Your chemical's label is a good starting point for what's allowed.  Then I would look to scientific research and industry guidance (like FDA, and other governments).  The fact that you have different vegetables should be accounted for in your HACCP analysis.  How are you cleaning to prevent contamination from one type to another, do you always change the water between runs,  etc?

The use of chlorine in produce wash is really twofold:

1.) Prevent adding to any existing microbial loads (cross-contamination).

2.) Reduce the loads on the product being washed (log reductions).

If you are not using free flowing water (and I assume you aren't), then you should treat this as a CCP, and consider things like:

1.) How do you monitor the chlorine levels (automated, manual, etc)?  That will impact often you take measurements for the free chlorine levels? (And you care about free chlorine because that is what is left and available to kill the bad bugs).

2.) How often are changing out that water (as it gets dirty and that hampers the ability for the chlorine to work, and can hamper the tools used to measure that free chlorine.

3.) Don't forget to measure and control your pH of the water (as it impacts the effectiveness of the chlorine dramatically).

4.) The length of time the product is exposed impacts you as well.

5.) You also should look at the differential between the temp of the water you are using and the temps of the vegetables.  That differential should be below 10-degrees (or the vegetables can suck in the water).

Here are a couple of resources to help you get started:

Univ. of Florida: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ch160

Univ. of California: http://ucfoodsafety....files/26414.pdf

LSU: https://www.lsu.edu/...isinfection.pdf

Remember that your use of chlorine is not just to prevent spreading something already in your packing house, but is also to reduce the microbial load on the vegetables themselves.  This is measured in log reductions.  In fresh produce, the larger the reductions, the better.  How much you can get is dependent upon many factors, but you should be able to document at least a 2-log reduction and ideally more.  We pack citrus and get a 5+ log reduction (which helps me sleep at night). 

Anyway, when you are researching, look for information from educational and governmental resources as those are the most trustworthy. 

I hope that this helps somehow.  

Good luck,

Todd 

PS: Testing your produce wash waste water for free chlorine is a good way to double check that your system is working correctly.  As long as I have free chlorine going down the drain, I know that I at least didn't make anything worse.