5 replies to this topic

[GrowInTheDark]

Hi folks,

 

I have a fresh produce facility that is looking to bring in freshly harvested produce from our other location, so that it can be cooled and further processed at our facility.

The other location is about 10 minutes down the road. The produce would be immediately vacuum cooled upon arrival.

We are SQF certified. I am trying to figure out a way to make this acceptable to the code.

 

I don't know if doing a risk assessment is enough to justify our receivers receiving warm product. 

I really don't feel that the risks are that significant, because the trip is extremely short, and the product is immediately cooled. 

It's not going to be constantly happening, but when the output of product is too much for the other location's Vac cooler, and we need to start processing due to time constraints, we want to be able to accept it warm here, and cool it. To me, it's no different, or possibly safer than the same skid of product waiting in queue to be cooled prior to transport (it ultimately ends up being cooled sooner if it's sent over to my dock)

 

Is there anything I'm missing in allowing this practice to commence, or can I do a risk assessment and we can proceed with this? 

 

Thanks in advance!

[SQFconsultant]

Yes, I think a risk analysis may not be all that is needed here as you did not mention what else you are receiving and under which FSC and cert category your facility is certified, etc. - what entails further processing, etc.

 

Is the other facility SQF as well???

 

Would that one then fall under your certification or do you treat the other plant as a supplier?

[GMO]

I'm not 100% clear on the process but if I understand it correctly, you will be cooling the produce with a different method and you will be changing the supply so that sometimes it will be direct from the harvest and sometimes it will be via a cooling step at your other site.

 

Personally I would make sure that you get the HACCP team together and work it through.  Document on your process flow the two different sources of the material then work through the risk of receiving it "warm".

 

So things I'd think about are:

• Do you need to know the time of harvesting to arrival so you know how long it has been warm for since harvest?  This will depend on what the produce is later used for but could influence microbiological loading.  Presumably your sister site will have some guidelines on how quickly they need to chill the items.
• How quickly can you bring down the temperature?  You will probably need to do some trials on this with data loggers to check you can bring the temperature down quickly enough.
• Are there any other considerations?  So for example, bringing in the produce straight from farm may come with other "incidental" contamination which you may not be seeing when it comes via your other plant.  Even if they don't wash it for you, they may be removing the original pallet or outer containers or packaging which may reduce the risk to you of pests or foreign matter.  It might be worth talking to your sister plant and seeing what comes in so you're prepared if that does need addressing.

[Scampi]

I'm trying to understand why you think this is an issue?

 

IF the product was harvested today, regardless of by whom, it will always be warm, no?

[kfromNE]

I'm trying to understand why you think this is an issue?

 

IF the product was harvested today, regardless of by whom, it will always be warm, no?

 

I agree with Scampi. You don't have to refrigerate raw produce. There isn't a food safety issue, it's more quality. Only when you start processing it - then some produce items need to be refrigerated. 

[jfrey123]

I've been helping with my company's supplier approval for fresh fruit and veg the past couple years, took the main bulk of the role on as of about October last year, so I'm still learning a lot.  But I think my question would be how do you plan to cool it?  I could see merely throwing hot veg into your existing cold storage being problematic.  Those vac coolers at packinghouses rely on cold air flowing to help prevent condensation concerns, and they cool far more rapidly.  If you're placing hot farm produce into your coolers, depending on the sheer volume, you also run the risk of overloading your system's capabilities, creating condensation in your storage condensers as well as raising the temps of the room to unacceptable levels for the cold produce you already have stored.  

 

If you have a vac cooler yourself, you could add it to your HACCP flow specifically to address veg direct from farm.  But keep in mind, whatever preventative controls you're able to factor having your product come from a GFSI packinghouse (normally PrimusGFS facilities) are now out the window.  You're bringing in entirely raw and dirty produce direct from farm, storing it next to items that have some level of control having gone through a packinghouse.  I don't quite have the experience yet to fully flesh out the nuances of this, but just thinking of a few concerns I would have if my sites decided they were going to start accepting direct field shipments.