Safe Mushroom – A new food safety code of practice designed for mushroom farms
Mushroom farms that are supplying the major retailers are unavoidably familiar with food safety certification programs. They may be audited to Freshcare, or another base program, with HARPS on top, plus Sedex and – potentially – other retailer-based requirements.
Anyone implementing a food safety standard on farm will know that there are a large number of criteria which have no relevance to mushroom production. For example, DDT used years ago in the bottom paddock will not affect the mushrooms, nor is the crop likely to be contaminated by passing kangaroos or leaking septic systems. Mushroom production is not made unsafe by local flooding (unless there is major damage to infrastructure), and there is no ‘planting material’ to be considered.
Third party audited food safety and quality programs can be expensive to implement and audit, especially for small growers. They include issues which may be only tangentially related to food safety – such as labelling, the potential for food fraud and worker health and safety. Keeping the required records and ensuring compliance can be a full time job for many businesses. While a requirement for supply to some customers, they are beyond the reach of smaller, family based farms.
However, food safety is just as important for somebody growing a few blocks in a shipping container as for a large, high-tech shelf farm. To the consumer, mushrooms are a commodity; they don’t differentiate one farm from another. If a food safety outbreak was to occur, it would affect the whole industry, not just the individual grower.
To bridge this gap, the MU20000 team (Extension and adoption for food safety, quality and risk management) have developed the ‘Safe Mushroom’ standard.
Whereas a standard such as Freshcare includes more than 30 pages of compliance criteria, Safe Mushrooms is just over three. This is because it only includes elements that directly affect food safety of mushrooms.
The aim was to allow small farms to demonstrate that they are following safe practices, without the time and cost of higher-level programs. To do this, the requirements have been kept as simple as possible. Growers essentially need to show that they have:
a. considered potential sources of contamination
b. implemented strategies to reduce risk and
c. kept records where appropriate
Most of these are simply good management practice, so should not impose additional costs on the business.
The team have developed examples of the information required, including farm and production facility maps, a typical operations flow chart for mushroom production, work instructions and risk assessments for growing media and casing. There are also record sheets for activities like chemical application and staff training, as well as scheduling cleaning and pest management.
The next step is to trial the program to check how easy it is to implement, and whether additions or subtractions are needed.
Free training and assistance will be provided. A second party audit will be done remotely by another member of the project team, at no cost to the business.
It should be emphasised that this program does not meet the current supply requirements of the major retailers. However, it will provide a food safety foundation and evidence that a farm is following safe practices.
Note that microbial testing of mushrooms and irrigation water is also available through project MU20000. These test results meet all food safety certification requirements (e.g. Freshcare), not just those of Safe Mushroom.
If you are interested in trialling this new program at your farm, please contact Jenny Ekman jenny.ekman@ahr.com.au or 0407 384 285
Associated Resources:
Introduction to food safety for mushroom farm workers
Food safety certification programs, such as Freshcare and HARPS, require all staff to have some basic food safety training. As a minimum, staff must be aware of basic personal hygiene requirements.
This video provides a simple, 20 minute food safety induction suitable for all new workers, regardless of whether they are driving a forklift or picking mushrooms. It explains why food safety matters, different types of hazards that might occur on a mushroom farm, and - importantly - what staff need to do to avoid contaminating the product.