Safe, Easy, Low-Cost Produce Handling

These guides are intended to support the adoption and integration of key practices for reducing produce safety risk on limited-resource farms.

Each guide describes design goals, design elements, and the benefits of a specific practice. Taken together, these practices address critical control points for managing produce safety risk, from field to customer.

Adoption of these practices can also improve efficiency of produce handling operations, and thus farm profitability.

Cleaning Carts/Kits

Mobile carts or kits can be used to make cleaning equipment and supplies readily available where they are needed in the wash/pack area, supporting efficient operations to reduce risk.

Someone hosing off vegetables on a large table

Cleaning Materials and Tools

Only some detergents are food safe, affordable, and appropriate for use when handling fresh produce. Brushes are made with a variety of materials and come in many shapes and sizes.

an air conditioner in a wall, next to a fancy thermostat

Cold Storage

Cold temperatures help maintain post-harvest product quality and reduce food safety risks. Storage systems should be properly sized, monitored, and maintained.

two bottles of cleansers and two scrub brushes

Contact Surface Cleaning

Effective cleaning of surfaces that come in contact with fresh produce is a multi-step process that involves assessment, debris removal, scrubbing with detergent, and rinsing.

Container Landing Platforms

Often overlooked, it’s worth considering durable, cleanable, easy to move and
ergonomically designed platforms for placing, stacking, and sorting produce.

someone scooping leafy greens out of a dunk tank

Dunk Tanks

Removing soil and debris from crops is a common process in the pack shed. Properly sized, durable containers made of food safe materials are essential to this task.

Farm Containers for Harvest and Storage

Durable, cleanable, use-specific containers can help reduce food safety risks during harvest and storage of fresh produce.

Greens Spinners

Greens drying is often accomplished with spinners. These can be effective and efficient if properly designed and sized to a farm's production.

Hand Washing

Hands are a potential source of contamination in many produce handling operations. Providing easy and convenient hand washing is one of the best ways to reduce food safety risk on a farm.

Hoses and Spray Nozzles

Spraying fresh produce can be an effective way to remove debris and contaminants. Spray system considerations include nozzles, hoses, hangers, and water drainage.

Irrigation Water

Providing supplemental water to crops is often necessary to obtain good yields, but practices must be implemented to address risks that occur when irrigation water contacts the edible portion of a crop.

draining water from a large container of leafy greens

Managing Dunk Tank Water

Proper management of the water used to rinse produce in dunk tanks is critical to effective removal of soil, debris, and potentially harmful microbes.

Product Labels

Food labels are important for producer and consumer, supporting traceability. There are many ways to meet legal and market requirements when labeling fresh produce.

Product Transport

The quality of produce can decline during transportation due to improper handling, or inadequate environmental control. Proper loading, cooling and monitoring can help avoid issues.

Sanitizers

Unlike detergents, sanitizers are used to kill microbes. Only some sanitizers are food safe, affordable, and appropriate for use when handling fresh produce. Proper handling of sanitizers is important to assure that they are effective, and to manage risks to people that handle them.

Spray Tables

Spraying produce such as carrot bunches is often done on tables, which should be durable, cleanable, ergonomically designed, and minimize unwanted back-spray.

Authors: Hans Estrin and Vern Grubinger, UVM Extension

This work is supported by the Food Safety Outreach Program Name, project award no. 2023-70020-40688, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.

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