World Food Safety Day on June 7, 2020, carries the theme ‘
Food safety, everyone’s business’ and provides the perfect opportunity for us to celebrate the Australian fresh produce businesses that have supported and adopted the industry-focused outcomes of the Freshcare food safety and quality program. Through the uptake, application, and certification to the Freshcare Standards, these participating businesses display a commitment to the Australian fresh produce industry through stewardship of global standards in food safety compliance.
The fresh produce industry provides Australians with an impressive choice of locally grown produce year-round, facilitating well-balanced diets, strong immune systems, and healthy lifestyles. An adverse food safety incident can however have a negative impact on public health, trade, and the economy. Food safety is often not considered by consumers until a food poisoning incident occurs. Ensuring the production and availability of safe food is vital to protecting the fresh produce supply chain. Food safety is therefore fundamental to everyone's business and the shared responsibility of every person within those businesses.
The implementation of Freshcare’s food safety program ensures that with every harvest your business is managing potential food safety risks, ensuring that the produce you provide for someone’s next meal or snack, is safe to eat.
The five key messages supporting World Food Safety Day 2020 include critical elements that make a sustained difference in the production of the food we eat:
- Ensure it’s safe – Governments must ensure safe and nutritious food for all.
- Grow it safe – Agriculture and food producers need to adopt good practices.
- Keep it safe – Business operators must make sure food is safe.
- Eat it safe: All consumers have a right to safe, healthy, and nutritious food.
- Team up for safety – Food Safety is a shared responsibility [1]
The World Food Safety Day campaign highlights the importance that farming practices must adapt to ensure a sufficient supply of safe food at a global level while at the same time mitigating climate change and minimising future environmental impacts. As food production systems (including Freshcare) transform to changing conditions, producers must carefully consider optimal ways to address potential risks to ensure that food is safe
[1]. The Freshcare Standard has been providing this assurance to Australian producers and industry for over 20 years.
Since its inception, Freshcare’s focus has been about delivering a food safety program that is adaptable, adoptable, and achievable by the Australian fresh produce industry, as a whole.
Freshcare has continued to evolve from its early beginnings of on-farm food safety to offering a suite of globally recognised Certification Standards. Through its evolution, Freshcare has remained focused on delivering leading outcomes for industry, based on global best practice, underpinned by science and presented in a format for practical, cost-effective, and efficient application.
Unlike other certification schemes, Freshcare promotes program ownership over consultancy application. Our programs are built around providing participating businesses with the resources (examples, forms, risk assessments), knowledge (through training and eLearning), and confidence (through technical support) to apply food safety practices and business management tools to mitigate food safety risks throughout the production cycle.
Freshcare has achieved global benchmarking to further add value to its participating businesses by providing assurance to global markets that the Australian fresh produce industry is committed to food safety best practice both locally and internationally. It provides the fresh produce industry with the tools, practices, technical guidance, and ownership, to effectively manage food safety 365 days of the year.
Certification to Freshcare, achieved via annual audits (during harvest or operational months), represents independent verification that the standard has been established and food safety principles are actively applied in the daily operations of each certified business. Providing trust and assurance to suppliers and markets both locally and globally, that your organisation is committed to managing and mitigating food safety risks.
Freshcare would like to acknowledge every participating business in the Freshcare program, as they help represent Australia’s commitment to safe food on a global scale. We’d also like to acknowledge the contributions from industry and stakeholders that have helped develop the program and continue to drive a commitment to food safety through training, support networks, and adoption of the Freshcare Standards. Together we demonstrate the collaborative efforts of the industry in delivering safe food because food safety is everyone's business.
[1] Source: http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/world-food-safety-ay/about/en/ 
