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Module 4 - Agritourism
1.
Food Safety Recommendations
for Agritourism
Farmers Market Federation of NY
Cornell Cooperative Extension,
Jefferson County
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
State funds for this project were matched with Federal funds under the
Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program of the Agricultural
Marketing Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
2. Introduction to Agritourism
• Definition of agritourism
• Potential sources of
contamination
– Water
– Products
– Farmer/employees
– Buildings
– Farm store
– Consumers
– Food service
– Farm animal displays
– Farm winery
– PYO operations
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
3. • Potential outcome of
contamination/sickness
– Lawsuits
– Media coverage results in widespread scare
and loss of consumer base/consumer
confidence in your farm
– Loss of income and potential loss of farm
• Minimize risks with a plan
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
4. Food Safety for Direct Marketing
Potential Source of
Contamination:
Water
5. Water
RECOMMENDATION: All water being used
for food preparation, hand washing and
drinking, that is not from a municipal
source, should have microbiological testing
conducted prior to each season opening and
as often as required by county regulatory
agencies.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
6. Food Safety for Direct Marketing
Potential Source of
Contamination:
PRODUCTS
7. Production & Post Harvest Handling
RECOMMENDATION:
Understand and
implement GAPs to
reduce food safety
risks that exist in
production and post-
harvest handling of
fruits and vegetables.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
8. Washing Produce
RECOMMENDATION: All water used in post-harvest handling should be
potable.
RECOMMENDATION: All water used in a communal or dunk tank must
contain a disinfectant appropriate for the commodity with levels
monitored for effectiveness.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
RECOMMENDATION: Signs
should be posted with a
message to consumers to
thoroughly rinse all produce in
cool, running water before
consumption.
10. RECOMMENDATION: All farmers and
employees should have clean body, hair and
clothes and be free from any signs of illness or
open sores.
RECOMMENDATION: All employees must
wash hands before beginning work and any
time they become soiled, i.e. after using
restroom facilities, handling live animals,
eating and drinking. Note that anti-bacterial
gels are not a substitute for hand washing.
RECOMMENDATION: Smoking should not be
allowed while selling and/or handling food.
NYS Health Laws prohibit smoking where food
is being handled, whether it is preparation or
the sale of food. Designated areas should be
provided for breaks so employees can eat,
drink, and smoke in a safe area.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
12. RECOMMENDATION: Maintain buildings and
establish pest monitoring and control
programs in farm buildings that store and
market food.
RECOMMENDATION: Foods should be stored
off the floor and not in direct contact with
the cooler walls.
RECOMMENDATION: Cooler walls, ceiling
and floor should be easily cleanable and
periodically sanitized to eliminate the build-
up of dirt, debris and mold.
RECOMMENDATION: Condensation within a
cooler should be prevented from dripping on
food products or food containers.
RECOMMENDATION: Lighting fixtures should
be covered to prevent contamination of
food products should the lights break.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
15. Products
RECOMMENDATION: All
foods should be kept off
the ground or floor.
RECOMMENDATION:
Foods on display should
be segregated from
potentially hazardous
foods to ensure there is
no cross contamination;
particularly raw meat,
poultry, seafood, and
eggs.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
16. Display Materials
RECOMMENDATION:
Storage and display
containers should be
free from food residue
and other debris and
cleaned and sanitized
regularly.
RECOMMENDATION:
Display surfaces should
be clean and sanitized
before each use.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
17. Consumer Packaging
RECOMMENDATION: Bags for foods
sold to consumers should be made
from food grade materials that do
not leach.
RECOMMENDATION: Using only
new egg cartons is the safest
action. If reusing cartons, all prior
markings, including producer
identification, grade and size
statements should be removed
from used egg cartons. The cartons
should be clean and free of any
residue, and re-labeled with the
farmer’s identification, according
to NYS Labeling Laws.
RECOMMENDATION: Shell eggs
must be held at 45° or below.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
18. Temperature Controls
RECOMMENDATION: All potentially hazardous and
prepared/processed foods must be prepackaged. Foods
prepared on site under New York State Health Department
Temporary Food Service Permit must be displayed under a
protective cover, to prevent contamination.
RECOMMENDATION: All prepackaged foods must be labeled in
accordance with New York State Labeling laws.
RECOMMENDATION: While on display all hot foods MUST
remain hot, 140°F* or above, cold foods MUST remain cold, 41°F
or below, with shell eggs held at 45°F or below, and frozen foods
MUST remain frozen, 0°F or below.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
19. Animals on the Farm
RECOMMENDATION:
All animals should be
excluded from areas
where food is being
grown, harvested,
prepared for sale, or
being sold.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
21. • RECOMMENDATION:
Signs should be
posted for consumers
indicating, “Food
Safety is a Priority at
our Farm. Please
wash your hands
after using the
restroom, touching
animals, eating or any
time they are dirty.”
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
23. Licensing
RECOMMENDATION: All foods must be prepared
in a commercial kitchen with an appropriate
Department of Health Permit.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
24. Employees
RECOMMENDATION: Food service
workers should always wear hair
restraints when handling foods.
RECOMMENDATION: Food service
workers should not eat or drink in
food preparation areas.
RECOMMENDATION: Food service
workers should thoroughly wash
hands and exposed areas of the
arms before beginning work, after
using the toilet, smoking,
sneezing, coughing, eating,
drinking or whenever they
become soiled. Fingernails should
be clean and trimmed.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
RECOMMENDATION: No bare
hand contact is allowed on
ready-to-eat foods.
26. Food Storage
RECOMMENDATION: Raw meats and other
potentially hazardous foods must be kept
segregated from other foods.
RECOMMENDATION: Foods should be stored
separate from any other materials, such as
cleaning supplies, chemicals and any other toxic
materials.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
27. Sanitation
RECOMMENDATION: All food service areas must
be made of easily cleanable materials and
maintained clean and sanitized.
RECOMMENDATION: All tables should be cleaned
and sanitized between uses.
RECOMMENDATION: When requiring farm guests
to bus their own tables, adequate garbage
containers must be made available and should be
emptied frequently enough to prevent spillover.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
RECOMMENDATION: All food service
materials, such as pots, pans, and
utensils, should be cleaned, sanitized
and stored in a manner that will
maintain their cleanliness.
28. RECOMMENDATION: Garbage containers
should be durable, easily cleanable, insect
proof and rodent proof. Tight fitting lids are
required on outdoor garbage containers.
RECOMMENDATION: Premises must be free of
insects and rodents.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
29. Outdoor Food Service
RECOMMENDATION: Fire
extinguishing equipment
should be fully charged and in
close proximity to the
cooking area. Check with
your county codes office for
types of equipment needed.
RECOMMENDATION: All
animals, except service
animals, should be prohibited
from food preparation and
dining areas.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
31. RECOMMENDATION: All live
animals for display should be
maintained segregated and
downwind from food displays.
RECOMMENDATION: Entrances
and exits to farm animal display
should be defined, creating a
unidirectional traffic pattern. A
hand washing station should be
located at the exit with signage
that says “Please wash hands
after touching the animals
and/or fencing, as well as
before handling food
products.”
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
RECOMMENDATION: Consumers
should be prohibited from eating in
the animal display area.
33. Food Safety for Direct Marketing
RECOMMENDATION: The
countertop or surface used for
serving should be cleaned and
sanitized after each seating of
patrons.
RECOMMENDATION: Either use
one-time use containers for tasting
and throw them away after each
use or meet the commercial
standards for cleanliness and
sanitizing of glasses after each use.
Alternatively, glasses may be given
to the customer as a souvenir of
their farm winery visit.
RECOMMENDATION: Food
sampling must follow the ‘Food
Sampling Guidelines for Direct
Marketing Venues’.
37. Bathroom Facilities
• Port-a-johns positioned close enough to be
convenient, but far enough to prevent
contamination from a spill
• Service records to show frequency of
cleaning
• Spill containment plan
• Hand-washing station
• Signage
38. Visitor Protections
RECOMMENDATION: Visitors should be made aware
that fruits and vegetables should be thoroughly rinsed
in cold running water before consumption.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
39. Traceability
RECOMMENDATION: All
farms should display
farm signage and label
all bags and containers
of food they sell with
their farm name and
contact information.
RECOMMENDATION: All
products being sold that
are not produced on the
farm, should be marked
with the farm of origin.
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
40. Project Committee
Project Leaders:
•Diane Eggert, Farmers
Market Federation of NY
•Amanda Root, CCE Jefferson
County
•Katherine Lang, CCE St.
Lawrence County
•Rosalind Cook, CCE Jefferson
County
Committee:
•Betsy Bihn, National GAPs
Administrator
•John Lukor, NYSDAM, Food Safety
Division
•Dave Wyman, Wyman & Associates
Insurance
•Lindsay Ott, Lindsay Ott
Communications
•Laura Biasillo, CCE Broome County
•Isabel Prescott, Riverview Orchards
•Phil Harnden, Garden Share
•JoEllen Saumier, Kirbside Gardens
•Solveig Hanson, Harris Seeds
•Michelle Sherman, University of
Minnesota
•Bob Buccieri, Seneca Falls Farmers
Market
•Robert Hadad, Cornell Ag Team
Food Safety for Direct Marketing
Fourth in a series of presentations on Food Safety Recommendations for Farm Direct Marketing Activity:
Farmers Markets
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
On-farm Sales
Agritourism
Direct Delivery
Crisis Communication
Optional Activity:
Paper Pass:
On the top of a sheet of paper, pose the following question:
“What do you see as potential sources of contamination on agritourism farms?
Then send the sheet around the room asking each person to list at least one potential source of contamination. Review at the end of the session.
Handout:
Agritourism Recommendations
There can be a variety of activities on Agritourism farms, such as corn mazes, wagon rides, etc. Each activity comes with risk, both food safety risks, as well as general liability. It is recommended that you work with your insurance agent to assess general liability risks and adequate insurance coverage.
Foodborne illness outbreaks can be devastating to all concerned:
Consumer health is compromised
Consumer confidence in the farm can be damaged resulting in lost customer base and lost sales revenue
Lawsuits stemming from an outbreak may cause financial ruin for the farm involved.
Risks can be minimized with a plan:
Follow recommendations for keeping your on-farm retail operations safe for your customers.
Maintain adequate and appropriate records to assist in tracing the source of any foodborne illnesses.
Create a crisis management plan to follow in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak that involves your farm.
Water can carry pathogens, such as E Coli 0157:H7 and can result in catastrophic health problems.
Water that is contaminated will pass that contamination on to anything that contacts it, whether it is through drinking, hand-washing, rinsing produce, etc.
Resource:
www.health.state.ny.us/environmental/water/drinking/regulations
While this presentation will deal more with how products are handled at the point of sale, it is important that all produce is grown, harvested and handled using adherence to GAPs food safety guidelines.
Note that neither size of producer nor method of production used alter the inherent safety of food products.
Resource:
www.gaps.cornell.edu
Small Farms Task Force: A Resource Guide to Direct Marketing Livestock and Poultry
Adding disinfectants to wash water can also improve the shelf life of produce by helping to control plant pathogens and spoilage organisms.
Reinforce the idea that food safety is a shared responsibility. While farmers work to ensure their food is free of contamination and pathogens, consumers must do their part and ensure that the foods they purchase remain pathogen free through consumption.
Reference:
Food Safety Begins on the Farm: Good Agricultural Practices for Fresh Fruits & Vegetables, ww.gaps.cornell.edu/
Farmer/employee hygiene is important to prevent contamination of foods. But it is also an important element in direct marketing. The visual image presented by the farmer helps to form a customers opinion of the food and its appeal.
The key is to prevent cross contamination. Cooler walls, food storage, should all be done in a manner that reduces the risk of cross contamination,, eliminates pests and rodents, and maintains appropriate temperatures for foods.
Coolers should have a temperature gauge to allow you to monitor temperatures. Also, a plastic curtain on the cooler door will help to maintain temperatures when going in and out of the cooler
Having bathroom facilities on site is a marketing tool. Customers appreciate the availability of facilities, especially those with young children. Without having bathrooms available, those customers would need to leave the farm and the result is unhappy customers and lost sales for the farmers.
Monitor bathrooms for cleanliness and restocking needs. Maintain service records to show when and who did each cleaning and restocking.
Every bathroom should have appropriate handwashing, complete with hot and cold running water, disposable hand towels or air dryers, soap and signage. The signage should say: “Employees/Vendors must wash hands before returning to work.”
Pathogens and contaminants may be transferred to product that is displayed on the ground, including insects, dirt, etc.
It is also a good marketing practice to display products within easy reach of consumers: between knees and shoulders.
Segregating potentially hazardous foods helps to eliminate cross contamination, either by the seller or the consumer.
Resource:
NYSDAM Meat Regulations: www.agmkt.state.ny.us/FS/industry/04circs/Art5Bsaleof meatCIR914.pdf and
www.agmkt.state.ny.us/FS/industry/04circs/meatforsaleatretailCIR934.pdf
Clean and sanitized display materials and surfaces reduce the risk of contamination. It is also an important marketing tool. Soiled surfaces and display containers with residue from past market days is an indication to consumers that the food is also unclean.
Plastic t-bags are of a food grade quality and can be used for food purchases. However, used bags may have contaminants or pathogens from product previously carried in them. To prevent cross-contamination, new bags should always be used.
The same is true for egg cartons. Used egg cartons may house pathogens from egg residue that remains from past uses. Therefore, new cartons are preferred.
If used cartons are being used, it is NYS Law, that the old labels on the carton be obliterated and the new label information be added to the carton.
Shell eggs must be kept at 45 degrees or below at all times, when on display and in storage.
Resource:
NYS Labeling Laws, www.agmkt.state.ny.us/FS/pdfs/FS1514.pdf
NYSDAM Egg Regulations: www.agmkt.state.my.us/FS/industry/shelleggs.html
Temperature requirements vary between the NYS Health Department and the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets. The range here encompasses both state agency regulations. Compliance with these temperature ranges will satisfy both sets of temperature regulations.
Keep a thermometer on hand and take temperature readings periodically, recording time and temperature in temperature logs.
Foods held outside of required temperature longer than 2 hours must be discarded.
No foods can be processed (ie cut, cooked or otherwise altered from their raw state) without a proper Dept of Health permit. Samples should be done in an approved kitchen and then pre-packaged.
Handout:
Temperature Log
Resource:
NYS Labeling Laws, www.agmkt.state.ny.us/FS/pdfs/FS1514.pdf
Animals are a constant on farms, from pets, to animals raise for food, as well as wild animals. But animals carry pathogens and should be eliminated from areas where food is grown or sold to prevent contamination.
Consumers can contaminate the foods on your table, as well.
Transfer of pathogens from animals touched
Unclean hands; i.e. not washing after using the bathroom
Sneezes
Be vigilant when consumers are at your table and remove any products that may have been contaminated
Carrying potentially hazardous foods , unless the product’s are the farm’s own products, requires a 208AFood Store License from NYSDAM
Processing of foods, such as cutting fruits and vegetables, baking, etc, requires a 20C license
While it is a good marketing practice to be clean and neat when working with food for the public, it is also a critical step to prevent cross contamination.
Reference:
Food Service Establishments, Chapter 1 State Sanitary Code, Subpart 14-1
Temperature requirements vary between the NYS Health Department and the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets. The range here encompasses both state agency regulations. Compliance with these temperature ranges will satisfy both sets of temperature regulations.
Keep a thermometer on hand and take temperature readings periodically, recording time and temperature in temperature logs.
Foods held outside of required temperature longer than 2 hours must be discarded.
Handout:
Temperature Log
Pathogens and contaminants may be transferred to product that is displayed on the ground, including insects, dirt, etc.
It is also a good marketing practice to display products within easy reach of consumers: between knees and shoulders.
Segregating potentially hazardous foods helps to eliminate cross contamination, either by the seller or the consumer.
Resource:
NYSDAM Meat Regulations: www.agmkt.state.ny.us/FS/industry/04circs/Art5Bsaleof meatCIR914.pdf and
www.agmkt.state.ny.us/FS/industry/04circs/meatforsaleatretailCIR934.pdf
This is as much a marketing tool as it is a health department regulation. Maintaining sanitary conditions minimizes the risk of contamination.
Reference:
Food Service Establishments, Chapter 1 State Sanitary Code, Subpart 14-1
Rodents and insects must be eliminated, both inside the building where food is prepared and served, as well as outside where garbage is stored.
Outdoors food service must follow the same sanitary guidelines as all indoor food service. But extra care needs to be followed when cooking and serving in the open to prevent contamination from windborne contaminants, insects and rodents, animals, etc.
Animals are a constant on farms, from pets, to animals raise for food, as well as wild animals. But animals carry pathogens and should be eliminated from areas where food is grown or sold to prevent contamination.
Farm animal displays can be a good way to help educate consumers about the role animals play in agriculture. They are also an attraction for kids of all ages, making the farm visit a fun shopping experience.
However, caution is necessary to prevent contamination of the foods being sold
Sampling of wines is considered food service and requires a County Health Department permit. These permits and the requirements vary from county to county.
Animals present a risk to consumers through touching and fecal matter. Working field dogs should be removed on days that consumers will be in the field/orchard.
Straw or mulches previously used as animal bedding should not be used in the fields or anywhere they would come into contact with consumers.
Having bathroom facilities on site is a marketing tool. Customers appreciate the availability of facilities, especially those with young children. Without having bathrooms available, those customers would need to leave the farm and the result is unhappy customers and lost sales for the farmers.
Monitor bathrooms for cleanliness and restocking needs. Maintain service records to show when and who did each cleaning and restocking.
Every bathroom should have appropriate handwashing, complete with hot and cold running water, disposable hand towels or air dryers, soap and signage. The signage should say: “Employees/Vendors must wash hands before returning to work.”
Signage or other means of communication should let customers know that PYO fruits and vegetables are not ready-to-eat foods.
This is also a good marketing tool – let your customers know who you are – mark your booth, as well as provide your farm name on bags, business cards, signage, etc. It helps customers get to know you and remember the quality of the products you sold them.
If you are reselling products from another source, they should be labeled with the farm of origin. This allows customers to know where ALL of their food comes.
Handout:
Traceability Procedures
Harvest Log
Optional Activity:
Discuss the many activities that occur at agritourism farms and the impact on food safety.
Optional Activity:
Have participants consider their own agritourism farm and identify on paper, the things they will need to do differently to comply with food safety guidelines. These can either be discussed as a group, or just as a take-away to begin a food safety plan for each farm.
