At Country Fresh our mushroom Quality Care Program is a proactive approach to addressing consumer Food Safety concerns.
Since our first semi-annual AIB audit Country Fresh has consistently been awarded a Superior Facility rating.
This program consists of:
1) Good Agricultural Practices
Integrated pest management, worker hygiene training, facility sanitation, glass, and breakable materials policy, etc.
2) Good Manufacturing Practices
Ensures we are producing safe products. Daily audits are performed to ensure the work area is compliant.
3) HACCP
Identifying all critical control points from growing through packaging and installing and monitoring safeguards to prevent any chemical, physical, or biological contamination at these critical points.
4) Cold Chain
The cold chain is continually monitored and temperatures are recorded at each step from harvesting to pre-cooling the trailers prior to loading. Recorders are included in each load to monitor temperatures during transit.
5) Sanitation Program
A sanitation program has been developed which ensures that all production areas and the machinery in them are kept clean and sanitized.
6) Microbiological Testing
Besides testing food contact surfaces, we also do pathogen environmental testing on a regular basis testing food contact surfaces and non-food contact surfaces. Final products are collected and are sent to an independent lab to ensure compliance with our customer’s requirements.
7) Training
The Quality Control department requires continual training on subjects concerning Food Safety, Food Security, HACCP, Sanitation, GMPs, Personal Hygiene, Cross-Contamination, and Product Quality. This ensures that our employees are aware that the safety of the products we ship to our customers is our highest priority.
