Articles
THE REALITIES OF GOOD AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES CERTIFICATION
Article number
906_11
Pages
83 – 90
Language
English
Abstract
In the last two decades food-borne disease outbreaks linked to fresh produce have led to increasing public concern over food safety; buyers now demand that horticulturalists demonstrate their product will not cause harm, through external verification of safer work methods by independent certification companies.
Competing and overlapping certification schemes make compliance with market requirements onerous and costly for growers, they also need to concentrate on certain core areas in order to guarantee a safe product, and minimize commercial difficulties arising from non-conformance with differing audit criteria.
These areas of concern were identified during the authors ten years experience with several standards, as applied in twelve countries.
The principal recurrent problems in all types of farm audits shall be identified, their causes briefly discussed, and the best practices required.
Competing and overlapping certification schemes make compliance with market requirements onerous and costly for growers, they also need to concentrate on certain core areas in order to guarantee a safe product, and minimize commercial difficulties arising from non-conformance with differing audit criteria.
These areas of concern were identified during the authors ten years experience with several standards, as applied in twelve countries.
The principal recurrent problems in all types of farm audits shall be identified, their causes briefly discussed, and the best practices required.
Authors
R. Yudin
Keywords
farm certification, farm audits, food safety, Better Management Practices
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