Post-Harvest

 Don't let all the hard work of planning, growing, and safely harvesting go to waste by contaminating produce at the last step!  Post-harvest handling provides many opportunities for contamination to occur.  Risk assessment and prevention is very important in this step.

Suggested best practices for post-harvest handling:

All water used post-harvest must be drinking-water quality

All handling of harvested crops should be done with CLEAN HANDS

Sanitizers added to water when required, such as in dump tanks. 

- sanitizer in dump tanks prevents dirt in the water from re-attaching to other fruit and vegetables in the water... otherwise known as cross-contamination.

Machinery can contaminate produce!  Clean equipment regularly!

Transporting Produce

Ensure trucks or trailers used to transport produce are clean.  

Do not transport produce in livestock trailers 

Keep records of truck cleaning schedule.  If you rent transportation, request records of cleaning from the company.  You don't know what was transported previously.