New guideline on microbiological risk assessment

The GlobalG.A.P. Stakeholder Committee has developed a comprehensive and easy-to-use toolkit for assessing microbiological risks in the primary production of fresh fruit and vegetables. This toolkit is the result of work carried out during the last year. It complements the current IFA standard version 4, in which new requirements for risk assessment were included.

The toolkit serves as a guideline that facilitates the identification of hygiene hazards during the harvest of fresh fruit and vegetables, and the comprehension of the measures to be considered in mitigating those hazards.

Each identified risk is referenced to a relevant control point in the IFA standard. In cases in which the standard does not cover the risk per se, the guideline recommends additional best practices that should be followed to manage the risk. These best practices can be viewed as additional points that will be evaluated for possible inclusion in future versions of the standard.

The new guideline will be presented and discussed during the GlobalG.A.P SUMMIT2012 at the Roundtable Session on microbiologigal issues on November 6, and the Breakout Session - Produce on November 8.

Click here to see the full SUMMIT Program.

For more information:
Claudia Meifert
GLOBALG.A.P. c/o FoodPLUS GmbH
Tel: +49 (0) 2 21-5 79 93-997
meifert@globalgap.org
www.globalgap.org