Resources.
When you have questions.
PFSS has the answers.
Sometimes you need a consultant; sometimes you need a document or link. When it comes to food safety, PFSS is your source for information.
The following information is provided for growers, packers, shippers, and processors to help you find more information about food safety practices and requirements. Your PFSS Food Safety Specialists are a great on-call resource that can provide specific answers to your questions based on your unique operations.
Pesticides
To ensure chemical safety in the workplace, information about the identities and hazards of almost all chemicals used and stored must be available to workers. OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) requires the development and distribution of such information.
All employers with hazardous chemicals in the workplace—from cleaning chemicals to pesticides—must provide training and have labels and safety data sheets (SDS or MSDS) available to their exposed workers. Below are helpful tools:
Toolkits
The Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association and PFSS have created ready-to-use food safety tools to guide you and your employees through ongoing food safety training.
The following tools can be used to train farm and harvest workers at initial hire and for ongoing training throughout the season. Contact your PFSS Food Safety Specialist or purchase a toolkit of the following downloadable materials available in English and Spanish:
- Basic Food Safety Training for New Workers Instructor’s Guide
- Basic Food Safety Training for New Workers Farm and Harvest – Training Script and Commitment Form
- Farm and Harvest Training Poster with Photos
- Farm and Harvest Training Poster with Icons
- An On-Demand, Train the Trainer Webinar – Overview of Materials and How to Use Them
The following tools can be used to train Packing Facility, Cooling & Warehouse workers at initial hire and for ongoing training needs throughout the season. Contact your PFSS Food Safety Specialist or purchase a toolkit of the following downloadable materials available in English and Spanish:
- Basic Food Safety Training for New Workers Instructor’s Guide
- Basic Food Safety Training for New Workers Packing Facility, Cooling and Warehouse Facilities – Training Script and Commitment Form
- Packing Facility, Cooling and Warehouse Facilities with Photos
- Packing Facility, Cooling and Warehouse Facilities with Icons
- An On-Demand, Train the Trainer Webinar – Overview of Materials and How to Use Them
Many third-party audits require food safety signage to be visible in field entry, bathrooms, handwash stations, harvest/packing operations, and break areas for onsite visibility of food safety practices and principles.
Third-Party Audits
Below is a starting place for common food safety audit bodies and certifications frequently used in the fresh produce industry. Contact your PFSS Food Safety Specialist to schedule an audit.
- PrimusLabs and PrimusGFS Audit Documents
- Primus FSMA Addendums
- PrimusGFS Training
- Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA)
- Documents, Standards and Checklists
- Control Points and Compliance Criteria
- SQF Food Safety Programs and Codes
- SQF Assessment
- What is an SQF Practitioner?
- SQF Training
- USDA GAP & GHP Audit
- GroupGAP
- Commodity Specific Audits – Tomato, Mushroom, LGMA
- Produce GAPs Harmonized Audit
- Rules for Enforcement of Federal, National Marketing Standards
- Find Organic Integrity Database of Certifiers
- NOP Handbook
- Allowed and Prohibited Substances in Organic Production and Handling
UNIVERSITY EXTENSIONS
Through extension, land-grant colleges and universities bring vital, non-formal and practical information to agriculture producers and consumers.
TRADE ASSOCIATIONS
Trade associations are voluntary membership organizations that promote agriculture, advocate for agricultural interests, conduct research, present training programs and provide forums where buyers and suppliers throughout the supply chain can network and conduct business.
