With 20 years produce business experience and HACCP certifications, our company specializes and excels in food safety within the produce industry.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is food safety?

Food Safety is a scientific system that provides secure measures for the handling, processing, preparation and storage of food to prevent food borne illness.

Food provides an environment that promote bacteria growth and can transmit disease from person to person. These are the vital reasons that the scientific system of food safety must be used to avoid potentially severe health hazards.

Statistics from the Center for Disease Control - CDC in the United States

• There are more than 200 known diseases transmitted through food.
• Food borne diseases have been estimated to cause 81 million illnesses.
• Food borne diseases cause up to 9,000 deaths per year.
• Salmonella, Listeria and Toxoplasma are responsible for 1,500 deaths per year.
• Unknown agents cause 62 million illnesses, 265,000 hospitalizations per year.
• Unknown agents account for 3,200 deaths per year.

Does your company have a documented, traceable, HACCP food safety program in place with a recall program in place?

What is a food borne disease?

Food borne disease is caused by consuming contaminated food or beverages. There are more than 250 known different food borne diseases and most of these are caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites that are food borne, but can also be caused by toxins and chemicals that have contaminated food and beverages. Because there are so many different diseases there are many different symptoms. However, once the microbe or toxin has entered the body through the gastrointestinal tract, some common symptoms may include: nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, and diarrhea.

What are the most common food borne diseases?

Although there are numerous food borne diseases, the most common are caused by the bacteria: E. coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter.

• E. coli is a pathogen that is found in cattle and other similar animals. Human food borne illness usually follows consumption of food or water that has been contaminated with cow feces.
• Salmonella bacterium is found in the intestines of birds, reptiles and mammals. It can be spread to humans in a variety ways through different foods of animal origins.
• Campylobacter is a pathogen and is the most common cause of diarrheal illness worldwide. This bacterium is found in the intestines of healthy birds and most raw poultry has this bacterium in it.

How does food become contaminated?

What can consumers do to protect themselves from food borne disease?

• Cook: Meat, poultry and eggs should be cooked thouroughly using a thermometer to measure internal temperature of meats.
• Separate: Avoid cross contamination by washing hands, utensils and cutting boards that have been in contact with raw meat and poultry before they come in contact with another food. Further, dedicate a separate cutting board each for: meat, poultry, and produce.
• Chill: Refrigerate meat, poultry and leftovers promptly. Bacteria can grow quickly at room temperature, so refrigerate anything not eaten within 4 hours.
• Clean: Wash produce thouroughly. Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables under running tap water to remove visible dirt and grime. Remove outermost leaves on a head of lettuce or cabbage. Always wash hands before preparing meals and after using a restroom.

How can Produce Safety Solutions protect consumers from food borne disease?

Food that is mishandled can lead to food borne illness. Produce Safety Solutions takes the food safety programs of every food handler from the farm to the table and links with each independent food safety program. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Our goal is to provide continuity between all of the food handlers so consumers know every measure has been taken to provide safe and clean food.

Whether we are inspecting and assisting restaurants, hospitals, hotels, event centers or grocers, our process does create a safer environment for food by insuring accountability for each food handler food safety program and the sale of transfer off of food from one company or person to the next is done correctly.

What is HACCP?

Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point.

HACCP is a system of quality control management placing responsibility for the result totally in the hands of the manufacturers and handlers of the product. The actual system is created in steps by the producer or manufacturer, themselves. This means that each participant's HACCP system must create the accountability needed to enable the next participant in line to pick up responsibility from a known and acceptable status. The plan must produce a documented, accountability-guaranteed safe condition. Each prior HACCP plan provides data to the next holders HACCP system, preserving product integrity at each point. Each HACCP system is totally independent of all others, and applies only to that company's processing and handling.