WA Tree Fruit Industry Focus On Food Safety

With the Fruit Grower Report I'm Susan Allen Jacqui Gordon Director of Education & Member Services with the Washington Stae Tree Fruit Association is here with me today to give a recap on the cleaning and Sanitation workshops held last month at Borton & Sons Inc., Zillah and Stemilt Growers in Wenatchee. The purity of tree fruit is a goal throughout the tree fruit industry:

GORDEN: We are really happy about the outcome of our cleaning and sanitation workshop, their format allowed great interaction between trainers and the participants, Insuring food safety is a top priority for our growers and packers.

Sounds like it was a great brainstorming session as well.

GORDEN: We have participants from several packing houses that were interested not only in learning about cleaning and sanitation practices but also in sharing their concerns about their current programs and talking about possible solutions among themselves. We appreciate the efforts from packing houses that opened their doors for us and shared their procedures and practices with us great demonstrations made by their own crews.

This isn't just limited to just anyone sector of the tree fruit industry

GORDEN: We had groups from the whole industry working together in this project and collaborating for the benefit of our industry and we want to continue down the same path, so we are planning on having more workshops with similar formats later in this year and 2017 as well,, focused on good fruit safety practice and FESMA related topics.

For information on upcoming workshops Contact Jacqui Gordon, Director of Education and Member Services at The Washington State Tree Fruit Association Washingotn Tree Fruit i Association 509-452-8555 Jacqui@wstfa.org