On-Farm Support
The BC Blueberry Council, the Raspberry Industry Development Council, and the Fraser Valley Strawberry Growers Association have taken a proactive role in working with the industry to continue to provide our customers with high-quality and safe berries.
Produce-related food safety risks may be influenced by the physical, chemical and or microbial conditions under which the produce is grown, harvested, stored, transported or handled by the end-user. All risks have the potential to cause food-borne illness.
Additional Safety Considerations
Right now, it is particularly important to practice increased safety protocols to prevent COVID-19 exposure and transmission. Please click here for COVID-19 resources for agriculture.
To minimize the risk of contamination, BC berry growers are working to implement good agricultural practices (GAPs) on the farm. The key areas of focus for BC berry growers include:
- Water Quality
- Adjacent Land Use
- Good Picking Practices
- Chemical Application
- Good Sanitation Practices
- Manure Use
Through funding by the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC, numerous tools and materials to introduce growers to GAPs and help implement GAPs have been developed for berry growers. Click here for more information and to see a complete set of these Grower Food Safety Resources.
To provide more formalized documentation of good practices, and satisfy buyer requirements, an increasing number of growers have been completing third-party food safety audit programs. Click here for information and links to some Formal Audit Programs.
We also provide links to external websites with useful on-farm food safety information here.