National Potato Council Addresses New Food Safety Guidelines For Potatoes
November 8, 2013 
Commodity-Specific Food Safety Guidelines for Potatoes is now available for potato growers.
In a webinar presented by the National Potato Council on Nov. 8, members of the council addressed the details of the guidelines, a set of guidelines the council presented to the FDA, which was approved in June 2013.
Present at the webinar were John Keeling, executive vice president and CEO of the National Potato Council, Susan Leaman, vice president of Intertox Decision Sciences, LLC, and Andy Diercks, vice president at Coloma Farms, Inc. in Coloma, WI.
The purpose of the Commodity-Specific Food Safety Guidelines for Potatoes is to address food safety hazards specific to potatoes, to outline the “best practices” for production, harvest, storage, and packing, and for industry members to use the guidelines as a benchmark or template for existing regulations.
The guidelines were developed by the potato industry based on FDA’s food GAP Guide, Canadian Potato Producer, and Packer On-Farm Food Safety Manual, and Produce GAPs Harmonized Food Safety Standards.
Some of its main objectives are to reinforce basic practices that are already instituted on farms and in packing sheds, and to help educate industry members on standard operating procedures and sanitation standard operating procedures.
The official commenting period for the Food Safety Modernization Act ends on Nov.15, and Keeling mentioned a few comments on the potato specific guidelines that he would like to file in regards to how FDA will regulate the transport of potatoes from the farm to the packinghouse, but otherwise, appeared pleased with the outcome.
Stay tuned for more coverage of the National Potato Council’s new set of guidelines and of the Food Safety Modernization Act’s open commenting period.
Click here to read the guidelines.
Subscribe Today For
