Food Safety Program
We take our food safety seriously and pride ourselves in producing and harvesting fruit that not only tastes great, but also has the safety of our customers in mind. Our food safety program is audited annually by an independent third-party organization, ensuring we continually uphold food safety standards that are recognized globally.
In our fields, we start our food safety program as soon as one comes to our farm. We keep field visits from outside personnel to a minimum and keep track of all visitors entering our fields. We have rules in place that keep glass, children, personal vehicles of guests, and domestic animals/livestock from entering our fields to mitigate the risk of contamination to our berries. We also don't offer u-pick for this reason, it's just not food safe for us. During our berry harvests, we provide ample handwashing stations for all of our hand-pickers, wash buckets daily, and perform daily inspections of the section of the field being harvested for any food safety concerns. No berry that has come in contact with the ground is harvested, including berries that fall when picked. Our flats containing berries are all elevated to prevent contact with the soil. When we use our machine harvesters, we conduct regular, documented inspections and wash all equipment every day during the harvest period.
Our packing house underwent renovations this year to improve the quality of our berry and our food safety program during packing. We maintain food safety while packing by regularly cleaning our packing line, wearing gloves while picking out undesirable berries, and minimizing hand contact with our fruit. We also regularly remove and appropriately discard any organic waste and berry sort outs from our packing process. We have made recent changes to improve our food safety measures by installing a pre-cooler and cold room for our berries, changing building materials for improved sanitation, providing handwashing stations upon entry to the packing house, and automating the cleaning and sorting process as much as possible to further reduce hand contact with our berries.
In our fields, we start our food safety program as soon as one comes to our farm. We keep field visits from outside personnel to a minimum and keep track of all visitors entering our fields. We have rules in place that keep glass, children, personal vehicles of guests, and domestic animals/livestock from entering our fields to mitigate the risk of contamination to our berries. We also don't offer u-pick for this reason, it's just not food safe for us. During our berry harvests, we provide ample handwashing stations for all of our hand-pickers, wash buckets daily, and perform daily inspections of the section of the field being harvested for any food safety concerns. No berry that has come in contact with the ground is harvested, including berries that fall when picked. Our flats containing berries are all elevated to prevent contact with the soil. When we use our machine harvesters, we conduct regular, documented inspections and wash all equipment every day during the harvest period.
Our packing house underwent renovations this year to improve the quality of our berry and our food safety program during packing. We maintain food safety while packing by regularly cleaning our packing line, wearing gloves while picking out undesirable berries, and minimizing hand contact with our fruit. We also regularly remove and appropriately discard any organic waste and berry sort outs from our packing process. We have made recent changes to improve our food safety measures by installing a pre-cooler and cold room for our berries, changing building materials for improved sanitation, providing handwashing stations upon entry to the packing house, and automating the cleaning and sorting process as much as possible to further reduce hand contact with our berries.
Our Certifications
PrimusGFS is a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standard that is recognized for fruit buyers in the western hemisphere. We are audited annually and required to demonstrate how our farm and harvest operations maintain a food safety program that meets globally recognized food safety standards.