Mango Industry Is Focusing On Safety And Traceability

By Bob Johns

Second annual Mango Food Safety Conference to feature heavy doses of information on FSMA and PTI.

For the second straight year, the National Mango Board (NMB) will be hosting the Mango Food Safety Conference. According to the board, this year’s keynote speakers will focus on an overview of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and how it affects the mango industry, produce standards, supplier verification, and how to create a food safety culture. Also being discussed by NMB will be mango food safety tools and resources, how to handle the media in a recall situation, product recall and product contamination insurance, and the Produce Traceability Initiative (PTI).

Mango consumption in the U.S. has been on the rise, increasing 32 percent since 2005 to 2.47 pounds per capita in 2012. The Mango Board attributes the rapid rise in consumption to the low calorie count and high amounts of fiber, vitamin A, and vitamin C prevalent in mangos. This rise in consumption has caused mango imports to reach 804 million pounds in 2012, and the need for increased oversight into product handling and traceability, with safety being the key to continued growth. In a recent press release, William Watson, NMB executive director, says, “Providing outstanding quality mangos that consumers will purchase again and again requires a commitment to safety and quality. When planning projects and programs, mango food safety initiatives are always top of mind and a priority for the NMB and mango industry.”

Sanitation And Cold Chain Continuity Make A Difference

Sanitation is one of the main components of any safety program, and the NMB takes it very seriously. The organization recommends mobile hand wash/sanitizing stations be available and are required to be used at the farm level.

At the warehouse/production facilities, cleaning and sanitizing packing-line equipment is critical. NMB's best practices include:

• Clean all surfaces by physically removing debris, biofilm buildup, and any other residuals on the line through the use of detergent, physical labor (such as scrubbing or a pressure washer), and clean-in-place (CIP) procedures and equipment.
• Sanitize using chlorine or quaternary ammonia to kill microbes on clean surfaces. Sanitation is not effective until after a surface has first been cleaned.
• Clean using a top-to-bottom method to avoid re-soiling already clean surfaces.
• Never put fruit that have fallen from the line back into circulation.
• Have waste receptacles available for employee use; regularly empty and clean them.
• Properly store all cleaning equipment after the workday ends.

Another one of NMB's main safety and freshness considerations is maintaining the cold chain, along with being able to trace the cold chain continuity. Reworking product and all product storage should be done in walk-in coolers set to temperatures specific to the product being held. All refrigerated trailers should be regularly inspected and cleaned. Staging areas should be cooled to the same temperature as storage areas to prevent product warm-up and re-cooling. Any movement or storage of the product should be documented along with the refrigerated temperature to ensure traceability in the event of a quality issue, contamination, or audit. Monitoring cold chain data from production to consumer can be a key to identifying both best practices and potential issues.

Capitalizing On The Cold Chain

Logistics companies are capitalizing on the worldwide growth of food exports buy increasing their cold chain capacity. Turkey's Netlog is adding six new cold chain facilities in 2014. In Florida, the USDA recently certified a new cold chain infrastructure at the South Florida Logistics Center. And, according to researchandmarkets.com, many cold chain service providers are beginning to offer end-to-end cold chain services to ease the pressures on manufacturers to maintain their own cold supply chain. These companies utilize innovative temperature monitoring technologies like wireless temperature monitors and recorders. These monitors record temperature data to allow manufacturers and suppliers to pinpoint breakdowns in the cold chain. With product shelf life directly tied to temperature and exposure, it is imperative that companies maintain a continuous cold chain and be able to monitor it at all times.