CanAdvance Sponsorship Project

News Release - 2008

Greenhouse vegetable growers lead with on-farm food safety

(Guelph, ON – March 12, 2008) The Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers is making efforts to ensure market demands for food safety assurance are not only met, but exceeded.

Back in 1998, the province’s greenhouse marketing board became the first grower organization in all of North America to implement tough standards for food safety. Now it is required that shippers, packers and producers are fully inspected and licensed.

“This sector is more than pro-active,” says Rose Martin, food safety coordinator for the Leamington-based board. “We’ve always understood that our promise is to provide consumers with food that first and foremost is safe.”

It’s more than just words, Martin says. The board voted over a year ago to make food-safety certification a must for every producer before the end of 2007. For producers, that meant not only learning how to eliminate food safety risks before they arise, it also meant training their work forces, and where necessary, upgrading their facilities to make them state of the art for food safety.

To make it feasible, the greenhouse board turned to the Canada-Ontario Research and Development (CORD) Program. CORD is an initiative of the federal-provincial-territorial Agricultural Policy Framework administered by the Agricultural Adaptation Council located in Guelph, Ontario.

Utilizing over $1 million in CORD IV support, the greenhouse board sourced up to $5,000 per grower to help their staff and facilities transition to the new on-farm food safety standards. “It’s to help with everything from switching to shatter-proof light bulbs to providing more and better hand sanitizing stations for workers,” explains Kim Turnbull, chair of the Agricultural Adaptation Council. “This is a commitment that extends through every aspect of the producers’ management.”

“Helping producers put their food-safety commitment into action sets Ontario apart as a source of vegetables that are nutritious and safe,” Turnbull said.

As an industry, over 70 per cent of Ontario’s greenhouse vegetables are shipped to the U.S., therefore attention to detail to ensure market access is essential

“Not only were we out ahead of the industry on this, we also understood that because our vegetables are used fresh, not cooked, we have a special responsibility,” Martin says. “We are committed to eliminating risks of chemical and physical as well as microbial contamination.”

To ensure it is effective, the greenhouse food-safety system is based on the philosophy behind HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point), Martin adds. “We have thoroughly studied where potential contamination could occur, and we have implemented steps to prevent it,” Martin says. “Retailers who buy Ontario greenhouse vegetables and consumers who prepare their meals with them can be assured that Ontario produce is safe.”

As of this fall, Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers shipping tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are required annually to be third party audited in food safety, and if they do not pass they are no longer licensed to grow, pack or market Ontario greenhouse produce.

This project was funded in part through contributions by Canada and the Province of Ontario under the Canada-Ontario Research and Development (CORD) Program, an initiative of the federal-provincial- territorial Agricultural Policy Framework designed to position Canada’s agri-food sector as a world leader. The Agricultural Adaptation Council administers the CORD Program on behalf of the Province.

The Agricultural Adaptation Council is a non-profit, grass roots coalition of 71 agricultural, agribusiness and rural organizations dedicated to providing financial resources to help Ontario’s agriculture and agri-food industry remain profitable, grow and maintain its economic strength.

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For more information:
Nadine Armstrong
Communications Manager
Agricultural Adaptation Council
Ph: 519-822-7554
E-mail: narmstrong@adaptcouncil.org
Website: www.adaptcouncil.org