Food Protection Trends - March/April 2023 - 126

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLE
Food Protection Trends, Vol 43, No. 2, p. 126-143
https://doi.org/10.4315/FPT-22-023
Copyright©
Susan M. Leaman,1* Justin Kerr,2
Sonia Salas,3
Afreen Malik,3
2023, International Association for Food Protection
2900 100th Street, Suite 309, Des Moines, IA 50322-3855, USA
Trevor V. Suslow,4
and De Ann Davis3
Martin Wiedmann,5
1iDecisionSciences, LLC, Bellevue, WA 98009, USA
2
4
Factor IV Solutions, LLC, Atascadero, CA 93422, USA
3Western Growers, Irvine, CA 92618, USA
University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
5Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
Fresh Produce Harvesting Equipment - A Review of
Cleaning and Sanitizing Practices and Related Science
ABSTRACT
During produce harvesting operations, various types of
tools, equipment, and containers have direct contact with
crops. Best practices for harvesting equipment include
routine cleaning and sanitation of food-contact surfaces
and areas adjacent to food-contact surfaces. Studies
investigating transfer of human pathogens to produce
during harvesting operations have revealed numerous
crop-contact points with the potential to serve as conduits
for pathogen transfer, including harvesting machinery,
knives, conveyors, cutting boards, harvest bins and
cartons, and cleaning equipment. When these surfaces
are contaminated with human pathogens, the pathogens
can be transferred to crops during harvesting activities.
Minimizing and controlling microbial hazards to prevent
contamination of produce during harvesting operations
in both indoor and outdoor settings presents challenges
that require a transformative level of risk awareness and
vigilance from all involved in management and operations.
Although new technologies are being explored to improve
equipment cleanability, prevention combined with robust
cleaning and sanitizing methods remain the most critical
maintenance aspects of harvesting equipment that is
at low risk for contamination. As part of the produce
industry's continuous efforts to enhance the safety of
harvested fresh produce crops, this review summarizes
scientific findings that harvesting equipment operators can
utilize to evaluate and further inform current cleaning and
sanitation practices.
INTRODUCTION
In the 1998 Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety
Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables from the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) (166), the agency named
harvesting machinery, knives, containers, tables, baskets,
packaging materials, brushes, buckets, etc., as field equipment
that " can easily spread microorganisms to fresh produce " and
recommends keeping harvesting and packing equipment " as
clean as practicable. " Those early minimal recommendations
for cleaning field equipment were expanded to more extensive
requirements under the federal Food Safety Modernization
Act following the 2015 finalization of the FDA's (168)
*Author for correspondence: Phone: +1 206.498.2825; Email: susan@idecisionsciences.com
126 Food Protection Trends March/April
https://www.foodprotection.org/files/food-protection-trends/mar-apr-23-Leaman.pdf https://www.doi.org/10.4315/FPT-22-023
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