Food safety and quality is foundational to keeping eaters and customers healthy and happy. Complying with buyers’ requirements around food safety certification (such as Good Agricultural Practices) and quality can be essential to accessing wholesale markets. However, navigating the changing landscape of food safety certification and Federal food safety regulation, and explaining food safety in a manner that is accessible to a diversity of farms and food businesses, is not easy.
Explore below a library of recent and featured resources related to food safety and quality.
Featured Resources
| Title | Author | Summary | Year | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wildfire and Food Safety Resource for Small Farmers | Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) | … | Food Safety and Quality | |
| The FSMA Good Manufacturing Practices for Low-Risk Foods A Guide for Small-Scale Farms and Food Businesses | Carolina Farm Stewardship Association | The FSMA Good Manufacturing Practices for Low-Risk Foods: A Guide for Small-Scale Farms and Food Businesses manual was developed to be a resource for small and medium-scale processors of Low-Risk Food/Activity Combinations (LRFACs) regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. The FDA requires entities making food for human consumption to register with the agency as a food ‘facility’ and to properly apply GMPs and other prerequisite programs in producing their foods. Low-risk food processors are exempt from implementing preventive controls and supply chain programs under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FMSA); however, they must comply with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) beginning in September 2018. This manual explains the essentials of GMPs and will provide more detailed information to allow you to understand and identify the hazards your food safety program should address. The manual also provides basic information about the necessary steps for successful food manufacturing and preservation and an explanation of the FDA’s rules on labeling foods that contain … | 2023 | Food Safety and Quality |
| Certification Self-Assessment Flowchart | Accredited Certifiers Association (ACA) | … | Food Safety and Quality | |
| Demystifying the Food Safety Modernization Act’s Preventive Controls Rule: Supplier Verification Requirments | Farm Commons: Rachel Armstong, Erin Hannum Community Alliance with Family Farmers: Kali Feiereisel University of California Extension: Erin DiCaprio | … | 2021 | Food Safety and Quality |
| A Guide for Food Hubs on Food Safety Compliance | CENTER FOR AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SYSTEMS | With a wide array of functions, connections, and impacts, food hubs face challenges adhering to food safety laws and regulations. Those laws and regulations often were not written with food hubs in mind. With this resource, decision makers at food hubs can build a strategy around food safety regulations that achieves compliance and reduces risk. Described as a “centrally located facility…facilitating the aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and/or marketing of locally/regionally produce food products,” food hubs’ operations can vary widely depending on their focus and location. Because of this varied approach, the food hub’s food safety compliance strategy can be extremely nuanced, with different activities having different requirements. Designed to be used in collaboration with a lawyer or food safety consultant, this guide outlines the legal landscape for food hub decisionmakers looking to build food safety compliance and risk management strategies. Tailored to food hubs’ specific concerns, this resource can build a foundation for food hubs looking to minimize their risk of litigation or fines while keeping in mind customer preferences, infrastructure, labor force, and … | 2023 | Food Safety and Quality |
| Tackling Food Fraud through Food Safety Management Systems | Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSi) | GFSI defined food fraud as below: “Food fraud, including the subcategory of economically motivated adulteration, is of growing concern. It is deception of consumers using food products, ingredients and packaging for economic gain and includes substitution, unapproved enhancements, misbranding, counterfeiting, stolen goods or others.” (GFSI, 2014) “Food fraud: A collective term encompassing the deliberate and intentional substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, labelling, product information or false or misleading statements made about a product for economic gain that could impact consumer health.” (GFSI Benchmarking Requirements, … | 2018 | Food Safety and Quality |
| Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption; Final Rule | Food and Drug Administration | Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce | 2015 | Food Safety and Quality |
| The Four Corners GroupGAP Group: A Case Study | Wallace Center | The Four Corners GroupGAP Group: A Case Study This report describes the history and learnings from the Four Corners GroupGAP Group, including the pros and cons of GroupGAP, the value of QMS, and key attributes of successful … | 2021 | Food Safety and Quality, Value Chain Coordination |
| Marketing Your Food Safety Certification | MI Food and Farming Systems and Fresh Systems, LCC | Food safety certification is no easy undertaking. While there are many reasons to go the certification route, a central reason is market access. Whether you already have a buyer asking for it, hope to gain a new buyer through it, or just want to get ahead of the curve, food safety certification is a useful tool in moving your produce from farm to table. There is a lot more to using this tool than just passing an audit. Once your certification is in hand, how do you communicate it to existing or potential buyers? What types of buyers ask for it? While many guides reference food safety certification, they typically only describe how to get certified, not what happens after. This guide aims to show you how your certification can be a catalyst for … | 2021 | Business Operations, Food Safety and Quality |
| CERTIFICACION DE SEGURIDAD ALIMENTARIA Y SU COMERCIALIZACION | MI Food and Farming Systems and Fresh Systems, LLC | CERTIFICACION DE SEGURIDAD ALIMENTARIA Y SU COMERCIALIZACION La certificación de seguridad alimentaria no es una carga fácil. Si bien existen muchas razones para optar por la ruta de la certificación, una razón fundamental es el acceso al mercado. Ya sea que ya tenga un comprador que lo solicite, espere obtener un nuevo comprador a través de él o simplemente quiera adelantarse a la curva, la certificación de seguridad alimentaria es una herramienta útil para trasladar sus productos de la granja a la mesa. El uso de esta herramienta implica mucho más que simplemente pasar una auditoría. Una vez que su certificación está disponible, ¿cómo se la comunica a los compradores existentes o potenciales? ¿Qué tipo de compradores lo piden? Si bien muchas guías hacen referencia a la certificación de seguridad alimentaria, generalmente solo describen cómo obtener la certificación, no qué después. Esta guía tiene como objetivo mostrarle cómo su certificación puede ser un catalizador para el … | 2021 | Food Safety and Quality |
| Quality Management Systems – A Guide for Food & Farm Businesses | Wallace Center | Learn about how Quality Management Systems can create a foundation for successful operational management of food and farm businesses, creating systems for continuous improvement, and meeting buyer requirements. This guide presents instructions on how to create and manage a QMS using the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” framework. | 2021 | Food Safety and Quality, Quality Management Systems |
| Case Study -ALBA’s GroupGAP Food Safety Program | ALBA | Case Study on ALBA (California) GroupGAP … | 2017 | Food Safety and Quality |
| Remote USDA Audits | USDA | August 2020 USDA Rules on Conducting Remote Food Safety … | 2020 | Food Safety and Quality |
| 2020 Path to GroupGAP Certification | USDA | A guide to a group’s journey to USDA GroupGAP certification. | 2020 | Food Safety and Quality |
| USDA GroupGAP primer | Wallace Center | A buyer-facing resource explaining the USDA GroupGAP program. | 2019 | Food Safety and Quality |
| An Introduction to GroupGAP | USDA | An Introduction to GroupGAP Overview of … | 2015 | Food Safety and Quality, Quality Management Systems |
| Small Farmers Can Make Food Safety Work – The Group GAP Pilot Project in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula | Small Farmers Can Make Food Safety Work – The Group GAP Pilot Project in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula This pilot project investigated group food safety certification as a scale-neutral, cost effective alternative to individual certification by looking at a pilot project based at the Upper Peninsula Food Exchange in … | 2015 | Food Safety and Quality, Quality Management Systems | |
| Comparison Chart for Certifying as a Group | Comparison Chart for Certifying as a Group There are several methods farmers have used to certify as a group. This is a succinct chart comparing 5 options, including … | 2018 | Food Safety and Quality, Quality Management Systems |