Food Safety Training April 8 th and April 29 th, 2017

Transcription

1 Food Safety Training April 8 th and April 29 th, 2017 One week before, the following materials: Food Safety PPT Useful links handout FSMA s Produce Coverage Flowchart ACTIVITY 1: FOOD SAFETY 101 Activity 1 is an introduction to a) the concept and importance of food safety in relation to farming success, b) understanding what it means to be covered by the FSMA s Produce Safety Rule. c) essential vocabulary words, d) intro to standard operating procedure (SOP). The print in italics is suggestions for simple language to explain complex concepts for limited English speakers. Time: 20 minutes Objectives: a) Recognize why it is important to practice food safety on the farm, b) know how their farm must comply with FSMA s Produce Safety Rule. Materials needed: Large paper or white board, markers, copies of FSMA s flowchart, Hand Washing SOP, How to Write an SOP from Steps: 1. Introduce Topic: Food Safety a) Define food safety. Food safety means that the food on the farm is clean and safe from making anyone sick We are mostly concerned about harmful microbes (bacteria, viruses and parasites) and foodborne illness outbreaks. We also need to prevent any physical (broken glass, chipped wood or metal), and chemical (pesticides, fuel) risks also. Who can name a microbe that has been caused people to become sick? (E.coli., Listeria, Salmonella, Girardia, Cryptosporidium) Write these names on the board. Can you see bad microbes? No Your best protection is prevention! Who can name a common crop that makes people sick? (Crops that are eaten raw, leafy greens, crops that touch the ground) Who can name ways fresh produce can become contaminated (dirty) on the farm? (Dirty hands, tools, harvest bins, wash station or delivery vehicle; Sick or injured workers; Not using the bathroom properly; Dirty irrigation or washing water; Contamination from animal manure or from wild animals in the field. Write these answers on the board.

2 b) Food Safety is important for farming success because: People can get sick from dirty food. They can even die. Your customers deserve the best! If you can t prove you were practicing food safety on the farm, the farm can be closed and the farmer can get in trouble legally if somebody gets sick. There is a new rule/law from the US government that says farms must have food safety programs if they want to sell food to customers and they make more than $25,000/year. You can still get in trouble even if you don t make that much money, so you should practice food safety anyway! And you would feel terrible if one of your customers got sick. 2. Explain New Produce Safety Rule a) Define what it means to be Exempt, Qualified Exempt, and Covered. Write these distinctions on the board and refer to the FSMA flowchart handout. You are exempt (not subject to an audit) if you make less than $25,000/yr selling covered produce (produce that is consumed raw). You should still practice food safety on your farm because you are still responsible if a customer got sick! You must be able to prove you make less than $25,000/yr by keeping sales records. You are qualified exempt if you make more than $25,000 but less than $500,000 selling all food, and you sell the majority of your food direct to the customer (mostly not wholesale or more than 275 miles away). You must keep sales records and label everything sold with your farm s name and address. You should still practice food safety on your farm because you are still responsible if a customer got sick and can have your exemption taken away! You are covered by the law if you make more than $500,000 selling all food and sell mostly wholesale, or 275 miles away. All of the rules apply to you. You must go to a Food Safety Training session of the Produce Safety Alliance. You may be audited. 3. Food Safety Vocabulary Lesson: a. Define Contamination. Write word on board. Contamination means that something is dirty. It may make someone sick if they eat something that is contaminated with bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Something that is contaminated can spread disease to other items, like from a tool to a head of lettuce. Use in sentence: If you are cleaning a chicken house and your hand touches chicken poop, there is contamination on your hand. Think prevention first, not correction. Contamination cannot be reliably removed from fresh produce. b. Define Sanitize. Write word on board. Sanitize means using a chemical cleaner to make something mostly free of microbes. Something must be completely clean of dirt before you can sanitize it. Use in sentence: When you clean a bathroom with bleach, then it will be sanitized. Bleach is a sanitizing chemical. c. Define Standard Operating Procedure. Write term on board. Write SOP next to the word. Standard Operating Procedure means making a plan. It is a long word so sometimes we say SOP for standard operating procedure. SOP is like saying USA for United States

3 of America. Procedure means the plan or routine for completing something. For example, the procedure to make rice might be to 1) wash rice, 2) mix rice and water, 3) cook for 20 minutes. SOP means doing it the same way every time. Ask class: Tell me an example of a procedure you already do on the farm. What is something you do that you do the same way every time? Prompt, if needed: What are the steps you take to irrigate? Use in sentence: Our food safety plan will include SOPs for different activities on the farm. The SOP will be the plan of how we make the farm, farmers, and food clean. Use in sentence. For example, our SOP for using the bathroom will say that the bathroom is cleaned/sanitized every week and people wash hands after using the bathroom. d. Define Audit: Write the word on board. Audit means a test or inspection of our food safety plan. A food safety audit is done by an agent (government or private) who comes to the farm to give you a certificate and a grade. Ask class to describe how they get a driver s license. You are looking to point out that when you get a driver s license, you practice driving with someone sitting and watching you. They tell you what to do and make sure you follow the rules. The food safety audit is the same. Someone will watch you on your farm and make sure you don t break the rules. Use in sentence: In order to have a food safety certification, we must have an audit. If we fail the audit, we have to do it again. If we do not pass the audit, we cannot sell vegetables. Passing the audit is very easy if we follow the SOPs. 4. Review SOP Example together Pass out sample the Hand washing SOP handout (written or picture-based) and How to Write on SOP from, Review different sections of the SOP and what each means: o Responsibility: who does the procedure. Some procedures are for farm managers/staff and some procedures are for farmers. We can even have SOPs for visitors/family. Example: Hand washing is for everyone at the farm staff, farmers, visitors, volunteers. o When: which part of the day the procedure is completed. Example: Hand washing is done BEFORE harvesting and AFTER using the bathroom. o Materials: the things you need to have to complete the procedure. Example: when washing hands, we need water, soap, and towels. o Procedure: the list of activities. Example: when washing hands, first turn on water and make your hands wet. After water, put soap on your hands. After soap, rub soap on your hands for 20 seconds. After 20 seconds is finished, use water to remove soap. After soap is removed, use paper towel to dry hands. After drying hands, use paper towel to turn off water, then put paper towel in the trash. 5. Wrap-Up and Evaluation Ask each person in class to say a new word they learned today. Ask each person to say why food safety is important for their farming success.

4 Activity 2: Perform a Risk Assessment/Food Safety Farm Tour Overview of the Activity: Tour the farm to understand how land use and infrastructure is important to food safety. [ADAPTATION: If remote, substitute virtual Farm Tour with video or photo series]. The purpose of the activity is to help farmers draw connections in how the farm layout, type of infrastructure, and farm management systems are connected to good agricultural practices for food safety. There may also be opportunities to identify additional ways the farm might be adapted to comply with food safety rules. The activity will focus on health & human hygiene, land use, and harvest/postharvest as they related to farm infrastructure and management systems. Time: 40 minutes Objectives: a) Understand how the physical infrastructure/ arrangement of their farm site will affect their ability to follow food safety guidelines b) understand how to identify potential risks c) understand how to come up with solutions for potential risks Materials needed: A farm or virtual farm experience, Wholesale Success Handout, On-farm Food Safety Checklist Steps: 1. Set up for your farm tour. a) Highly recommend installing abundant signage around the farm to explain what things are and what to do or what not to do. It is an excellent opportunity to represent food safety graphically. As you go through the farm, use the signs as teaching tools. Ongoing, use the signs as reminders. b) Important to decide prior to tour what activities staff is responsible for and what activities farmers are responsible for. For example, New Entry is responsible for water sampling and ordering porta-potty each season. The porta-potty company is responsible for cleaning and maintaining the bathroom. Farmers are responsible for cleaning and sanitizing all of their own tools and equipment and to jointly clean and sanitize the wash station and cooler. Farmers are responsible for maintaining the hand washing station. New Entry is responsible for stocking first-aid kits. 2. Introduction a) Explain that we will tour the farm together to see how the farm is set up for following our food safety protocols. b) Handout Wholesale Success and On-farm Food Safety Checklist encourage them to refer to these later when they tour their own farms and writing their own SOP s and food safety plans. c) Encourage farmers to ask questions and keep encouraging though the tour. This activity should be very discussion-based, not lecture-based. If farmers are not engaged, ask them more questions (e.g., do you think this is better or that is better? while demonstrating procedures) 3. Tour the Farm

5 Set up the tour like you have just arrived at the farm and are naturally moving through the space. As you encounter these different areas / topics, engage farmers in the discussion prompts below. a) Personal Belongings Storage Ask farmers: Where do you put your personal things when you come to the farm? You have just arrived at the farm and need to put away your bag, change into farm shoes, and store your farm snacks. Point to acceptable areas that are labeled for personal storage. This can be a shelf or table labeled Personal Storage. This is so that unclean things do not get mixed with clean things. Lockers are available in the toolsheds. Discuss location of first aid kit and what happens if there is an illness or injury b) Field Hand Wash Stations Ask farmers, What do you do before going to your field? Hand Wash Stations should be on the way to the field so that everyone must pass it. If there are different fields or different entrances, each one should have a hand wash station. If it s made easy, then hands will be washed. If it s made difficult, hands will not be washed. Discuss why we take water samples on the farm. c) Bathroom facilities and bathroom hand wash station Ask farmers, What do you do after using the bathroom? Hand wash station should be located near porta-potty. d) Toolshed Ask farmers, What is stored in the toolshed? What is NOT stored in the toolshed? Toolshed only has farm tools. Harvest supplies cannot be stored in our shed. Point out the difference between containers used for farming (carrying tools, seeds, compost, fertilizer, etc.) and containers used for harvesting. These must be different. Look for pest control and fertilizer. These are controlled substances and must be kept separate from other things in containers, just like harvest supplies. d) Wash Station Ask farmers, What do you do before washing vegetables? Dirty Tables and Clean Tables: When you come from the field with your harvest bins, set them on the dirty table while you wash hands and prepare for washing vegetables. Never put food containers on the ground in the wash station that s what the dirty tables are for. Use clean tables to dry, bunch/bag, and pack after washing. Wash Sinks: The water should be changed when there is enough dirt to prevent from seeing to bottom of the sink. Discuss proper ways of handling pests in the wash station. Collectively decide Wash Station SOP. e) Identify areas where eating and drinking are allowed Ask farmers, Where do you eat/drink? Food should never be eaten in the field, wash station, or packing/storage areas. Ask farmers, What do you do after eating?

6 f) Cold Storage Ask farmers, Where do you store your harvested produce? Collectively decide Cooler SOP. No food containers can be on the ground in the cooler. Ask farmers What do you store/deliver produce in? If you re not using single-use boxes, use a plastic liner in containers. Reusable containers must be cleaned and sanitized prior to use, then add the plastic liner. g) Transportation Ask farmers, How do you protect produce from contamination when transporting/delivering? Put a cleanable liner in your produce transport vehicle. Do not use food transport vehicle to haul farm supplies (compost, fertilizer, etc.) unless it is in sealed areas. If vehicle is mutli-purpose, clean and sanitize before hauling food. h) Compost Area Discuss where compost should be located. Discuss protocol for adding to and turning compost. Discuss when and where it is ok to apply compost. i) Wildlife Ask farmers, What do you do if you notice feces on any of your produce in the field? Discard. Discuss what to do if there has been an intrusion by wildlife in the fields. 4. Wrap up and Food Safety Plans Are there any risks that need to be addressed immediately? Assign them to write their own individual Food Safety Plans due May 15, o Rely heavily on Check List and sample SOP that you have been given. o o Use a template found on the Useful Links handout. Make sure you include your financial records to prove your status under the new Produce Safety Rule Let them know that we will be scheduling a mock food safety audit during the harvest season June 2017.