Understanding GAP Systems for Food Safety and Sustainable Production

1. General Concepts and Basic Requirements of GAP Systems - Food Safety and Sustainable Food Production Kit Chan APO E-Learning Course on Good Agriculture Practice (GAP) for Greater Market Access 4th-6th November 2015, APO Secretariat Video Conferencing Center (Session 2)

2. Good Agriculture Practice, GAP Misconceptions • GAP is an Alien concept • GAP does not relate to my business • GAP reduces my competitiveness

3. Guiding Principles of Good Agriculture Practices Embedded in GAP are two principles – • Assurance of safe food production • Sustainable production Assurance of food safety is a fundamental responsibility of the producer. Sustainable production ensures that producer must reap economic returns for his efforts and investments, and able to do so continually. For this to happen, the farmer must recognize the impact of his practices will have on the environment and to the consumer.

4. Food Safety

9. Hazards physical, chemical or biological agents that have potential to cause an adverse health effect Risk is the probability of occurrence and severity of injury or damage. Hazards and Risks in Food Production Risk is minimal if the hazard is absent or below a threshold value

10. Food Safety Cannot guarantee food safety But we can assure food safety If we can remove all hazards We have minimal risk

11. Food Safety Cannot guarantee food safety But we can assure food safety If we can remove all known hazards We can assess the risks of accidents

13. Sustainable Production

14. Sustainable Agriculture A farming system that provide the needs of safe, nutritious and affordable food for the world population, in a way that progressively conserve the natural environment and natural resources, by seeking to optimize the skills and technologies to achieve long term productivity and profitability of the stakeholders of agriculture enterprise, to ensure that future generations can also experience the same satisfactions that we enjoy today.

15. Sustainable Agriculture From the definition above, 3 major concerns have emerged • Ecological concerns • Soil productivity (Erosion, depletion of top soil) • Water (Depletion, groundwater usage, contamination) • Pest and Disease resistance to pesticides • Greenhouse effect and Climate Change • Economic and social concerns • Price of food • Income of the small and rural farmers • Impacts on human health • Food safety and food hygiene for consumers • Farm workers health and welfare

16. Voluntary Standards versus Regulations

17. Stakeholder View of Standards • Food Safety Voluntary ( Private ) Standards • Initiated and driven by the Consumers ( Clients ) • Creates competitiveness out of Producers • Voluntary participation creates self monitoring by the Producers • Derive economic benefits ( profits and market share ) • Non-compliance leads to commercial sanctions • Standards designed to provide assurance of food safety to consumers • Technical Regulations ( Mandatory Standards ) • Standards designed to enforce food safety conformity • Non-conformity lead to fine, quarantine or rejection • Stakeholders are obliged to conform to the standards

18. Good Agriculture Practice - GAP GAP is a production pathway that identifies critical control points and establish compliance standards of varying degrees to eliminate hazards and prevent accidents in order to progressively promote safe and hygienic fresh produce at the farm with minimum negative impacts to the environment The good practices proposed in GAP are universally established science - based rationales and justifications The close monitoring and specific control system provides assurances of safety to the consumers of GAP produce GAP demands a continual risk assessment of farm activities and its surrounding conditions to continually keep check of accidents and to upgrade the standard

19. Critical Control Points at Post Harvest Handling

20. What is a Critical Control Point (CCP) ? It is a point, operational step or stage in the food chain at which control can be applied and is essential to prevent or eliminate a food safety hazard or reduce it to an acceptable levels.

21. CCP on Safe Food Production (at the Farm) Pesticides applications • Toxicity, concentration, frequency, PHI, residue • Workers protection during mixing, spraying, cleaning • Disposal of empty chemical containers • Disposal of unused chemicals Storage of pesticides • Restricted entry • Storing pesticides with fresh produce Fertilizers applications • Application method, timing, quantity • Leaching of excess fertilizers into potable water systems Irrigation • Water quality • Fertigation

22. Why Construct a Risk Assessment ? Risk assessment can be used as a tool for decision making for the Producer. It is a compilation of quantitative and qualitative information that are analyzed to predict and gauge the serious extend of an accident happening, what are the probable causes and what actions to be taken to prevent the accident from happening In the farm, it is a careful examination of what could cause harm to the product, environment or to the workers, that the Producer can evaluate whether or not he has taken sufficient precautions to prevent harm from occurring

23. How to Construct a Risk Assessment How to assess the risks in the Producer farm? Step 1: Identify the hazards Step 2: Decide what or who might be harmed and how it could happen (what are the risks?) Step 3: Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions (how frequent does it happen and how serious could it be?) Step 4: Record the findings done above and implement work that needs done (actions taken are the controls that will be put in place) Step 5: Review and update the assessment at regular times

24. Sources of Food Contamination in the Farm

25. Sources of Food Handling Contamination in the Farm

26. 2 – Dimensional Health Risk Assessment Model Cr Sa Sa Sa Sa Mi Mi Mi High Medium Low Negligible Ma Ma Significance of Hazards Sa – Satisfactory Mi – Minor Ma – Major Cr – Critical Ma Mi Mi Likelihood of Occurrence Sa Sa Sa Negli. Low Medium High Severity of Consequences

27. GAP Certification GAP represents a best practice model of QMS for on-farm activities . A GAP Certification is a verification that authenticates that the farmer has understood the principles of GAP, and is willing and able to abide with the rigors of good farm practices. QMS – Quality Management System

28. Modes of certification 1st Party Certification • Supplier designs & comply own food safety program standards • Supplier hires (independent) CB to audit its operations & quality 2nd Party Certification • Buyer’s own food safety scheme that requires Suppliers to comply • Standards are designed by the Buyers or have been adopted • Standards compliance and supplier operations are audited by Buyer or by independent CB / auditor 3rd Party Certification • Buyer adopts independent food safety scheme for themselves and the Suppliers • The Buyer or Supplier hires independent CB to audit Supplier CB – Certification Body

29. Thank you For more enquiries, please write to kitchan@kfarm.com or visit us @ www.kfarm.com

30. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points Reducing the contamination of disease-causing (pathogenic) bacteria, eliminating the presence of unwanted toxic chemical or harmful physical objects in the fresh produce is a key factor food safety control. The Preamble to the HACCP rule describes an overall system in which preventive and corrective measures are instituted at each stage of the food production process where food safety hazards could occur. HACCP is a scientific system of logical process control that has been used in food production to prevent problems by applying controls at points in a food production process where hazards could be controlled, reduced or eliminated. The packhouse must have an effective HACCP system to comply with regulatory requirements and prevent adulteration of product.

31. 7 Establish documentation and records 6 The 7 HACCP Principles Establish verification procedures 5 Establish corrective action procedures 4 Establish a CCP monitoring System 3 Establish Critical Limits 2 Identify Critical Control Points 1 Identify hazards and preventive measures

32. Logic Sequence for Application of HACCP - 1 Get Management Commitment Set Food Safety Policy/Scope Objective Assemble the HACCP Team Describe Product Identify intended use Construct Flow Diagram 32

33. Logic Sequence for Application of HACCP - 2 On-site Confirmation of Flow Diagram List all potential hazards Conduct a hazard Analysis Determine control Measures Determine CCPs Establish Critical Limit for each CCP 33

34. Logic Sequence for Application of HACCP - 3 Establish a Monitoring System for each CCP Establish Corrective Action for Deviations that may occur Establish Verification Procedures Establish Record Keeping and Documentation Review HACCP Plan