Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Training

With food safety becoming a greater concern among consumers and retailers, there has been an increased demand that fresh fruits and vegetables meet certain conditions.  One of those conditions has been Good Agricultural Practices, or GAPs, which seek to put in place practices that will help to limit microbial contamination on the farm.  To date, this is a voluntary program that is not mandated by law.  However, the buyers that your handler sells to are calling for fresh fruit cranberries to come from GAP certified farms.  Currently this is being limited to those berries bound for fresh fruit markets. 

What does this mean?  In a nutshell, it will require thorough documentation of practices that reduce the possibility of microbial contamination in your fresh fruit berries.  This will include your irrigation schedules, pesticide applications, fertilizer applications, maintenance of equipment, and training of your employees.  In order to recieve certification, you will then have to pass an audit by a third party, either the USDA or one of the many commercial firms available.  

You can read more about GAP in the following documents. 

Grower’s guide to reducing microbial contamination of fresh cranberries (PDF: 270KB)

Additional Resources and Information Available Here:  (Or contact the CCCGA Office)

USDA-FDA Guide to Minimize Microbial Contamination in Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

FDA Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition’s Web Site

USDA GAP Audit Checklist (full document) (PDF: 143KB)

Cornell University’s Department of Food Safety

UMass Dartmouth Center For Marketing Research GAP Survey for Cranberries (PDF: 270KB)

If you don't have a PDF reader installed on your computer, you can download free software at the Adobe web site.