Australia: Focus on Horticulture

Freshcare’s roots include a collaboratively developed industry document called Developing an Approved Supplier Program for Fresh Produce – A Guide for Customers and Suppliers, published in January 1999, which in the 2004 second edition became known as the Guidelines for On-Farm Food Safety for Fresh Produce.

“The initial 1999 Guide provided practical information relative to on-farm practices for controlling food safety risks and example record keeping solutions that might be used to demonstrate compliance, thus establishing a basic food safety program for ‘approved suppliers’ in the fresh produce supply chain,” Hamilton-Bate says.

The 1999 Guide was rapidly embraced by the fresh produce industry, as there was now a consistent national reference document for producers to follow, and through which customers could base their approved suppliers, Livingstone notes.

“Approved supplier programs based on the Guide soon became nationally consistent, but there remained the problem of checking that the on-farm practices in the Guide were being followed,” he points out. “Multiple customers still potentially meant multiple audits for growers and a more practical approach to this issue was needed.”

By early 1999, Hamilton-Bate says, there was already a demand from many industry stakeholders to redesign the Guide structure and contents so that it could become a third-party auditable code of practice incorporating a science-based master HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) plan and prescriptive compliance elements, thereby eliminating the need for multiple customer audits. Publication of the Guide thus provided the seed that would grow to become an additional document, the Freshcare Food Safety Code of Practice, in mid-2000.

“The third edition of the Freshcare Food Safety & Quality Code of Practice was released in 2009,” Hamilton-Bate relates. “The fourth edition is currently being reviewed by the Freshcare Technical Committee and is due for release in early 2015. This regular review process is critical to ensure the codes remain up to date, in consideration of both underpinning science and market requirements.”

Some Freshcare training resources have also been translated into Arabic, Cantonese, Khmer, Punjabi, and Vietnamese versions.
Livingstone adds that, during the last two to three years, a project funded by Horticulture Australia Limited (a not-for-profit, industry-owned company that works in partnership with Australia’s horticulture industries to invest in research, development, and marketing programs) has engaged retailers, food service providers, and system owners (including Freshcare) to try to define a single food safety standard that could potentially cut more than AU$40 million out of auditing costs borne directly by Australia’s produce farmers.

“Freshcare is in the process of seeking GFSI benchmarking, whilst at the same, this project is an attempt to align, as much as possible, the food safety standards to reduce compliance costs,” Livingstone interjects. “The project is making some progress, although each participant will still want to have some components that are unique to them.”

“We have been very fortunate that we haven’t had a major food safety incident in Australia’s horticulture industry and I think that is testament to the high quality of all the standards,” Livingstone emphasizes. “Getting the systems aligned would be a major cost and compliance saving exercise that is well worth pursuing.”

Fresh Produce Safety

Following a Fresh Produce Safety Forum in November 2012, stakeholders from all sectors of the fresh produce supply chain in Australia and New Zealand launched the Fresh Produce Safety Centre Limited as an industry-led, not-for-profit company to enhance fresh produce food safety across the countries through research, outreach and education.

Having been established by the Produce Marketing Association Australia-New Zealand through a project with the University of Sydney, the Centre is funded and spearheaded by the fresh produce industries in Australia and New Zealand. And based at the Faculty of Agriculture & Environment at the University of Sydney, the Centre is affiliated with the Center for Produce Safety at the University of California-Davis.