The United Nations has declared 2021 as the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables. The Year aims to raise awareness of the nutritional and health benefits of consuming more fruits and vegetables as well as to direct policy attention to reducing loss and waste of these highly perishable items. In the weeks ahead the Stabroek Business will be publishing a series of articles based on information culled from the UN/FAO publication, International Year of Fruits & Vegetables 2001.
We begin our series with a spread of basic background information on the importance of fruits and vegetables to the human diet
The Codex Alimentarius Commission is the central component of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme. It develops recommended codes of practice, such as hygienic practices and practices for the processing and handling of foods or food groups.
GAP: Good agricultural practices
GMP: Good manufacturing practices
GHP: Good hygienic practices. A set of recommended practices to maintain quality and hygiene in the food chain.
HACCP: Hazard analysis and critical control point system: An approach that identifies specific hazards and measures to control them, so as to ensure the safety of food.
SOP: Standard operating procedures: Detailed, written, accessible description for use by personnel explaining how each operation is performed.
Traceability: The ability to follow the movement of a food through specified stages of production, processing and distribution.
International standards (FAO/WHO: Codex Alimentarius Commission)
The Codex Alimentarius, or “Food Code” is a collection of food standards, guidelines and codes of practice that have been developed by independent experts and specialists in a wide range of disciplines to ensure they withstand the most rigorous scientific scrutiny. Established by FAO and WHO in 1963 to protect consumer health and promote fair practices in food trade, Codex forms the basis upon which countries develop their national food regulations. These standards enable firms to trade with each other in confidence that the produce they are buying will be in accordance with internationally recognised specifications. Codex standards cover the general quality requirements, plus a list of permitted pesticides, the permissible limits of approved pesticides, post-harvest treatments such as waxing, labelling and packaging requirements, and permitted levels of contaminants. Without these common standards, international trade in these products would be a lot more difficult.
Where standards are imposed by a government (such as ISO standards (ISO, 2017)) or a non-government organisation (such as Global G.A.P (2020)), the consumer can be reasonably confident that the product actually is what the label says it is. But many firms add their own labels that are not subject to independent verification.
Safety
Fruit and vegetables may be rich in vitamins and other nutrients – but what if they are not safe to eat? Then they will not provide any benefits to consumers but may cause them to get sick or even die – they cannot be regarded as food. They may harbour dangerous pathogens or be contaminated with chemicals.
Washing, peeling and cooking can help remove some of these dangers (although peeling and cooking may lead to the loss of some nutrients). But many fruit are eaten unpeeled and raw, as are salads, tomatoes, cucumbers, beansprouts and other vegetables.
Consumers can detect poor-quality fruit and vegetables reasonably easily, and so decide not to buy them. This is not the case for food-safety problems, which may go undetected until the produce has been eaten. They may then cause health problems immediately – such as food poisoning by E. coli bacteria.
Food-borne diseases
Outbreaks of food-borne diseases can result in catastrophic consequences for consumers and producers alike. Food-safety hazards can result in products being excluded from the market, causing major economic losses and costs for producers, processors and traders. Assuring food safety must always therefore take precedence over achieving high levels of other quality attributes.
Food-borne diseases are estimated to cause some 600 million illnesses and 420,000 deaths around the globe every year (WHO, 2015). The World Bank estimates that diseases resulting from the consumption of unsafe foods cost low- and middle-income countries alone US$110 billion in lost productivity, lost trade, and medical expenses per year (Jaffee et al., 2019).
Such diseases are commonly associated with two major food groups: fruit and vegetables, and animal products. Fresh produce containing excessive amounts of chemical residues or exposed to pollution or microbial contamination have been linked to a series of food-borne disease outbreaks around the world.
Fruit and vegetables that are eaten raw, and especially those that are not peeled or washed in clean water, can transmit pathogens and dangerous chemicals (WHO). Public concern about these risks is at an all-time high.
Safety controls
Safety controls protect both consumer health and business interests by ensuring that traded produce complies with food-safety standards and that it is safe to eat. Because produce can be contaminated all along the value chain, controls are needed at each stage.
Good practices. In addition, FAO issues recommendations for good practices in agriculture, manufacturing and hygiene for fruit and vegetables. These aim to help farmers, traders and processors achieve the standards set out in the Codex Alimentarius.
Food safety risks along the value chain: Possible sources of contamination
Production: Soil, wildlife, pests, runoff or irrigation water, manure, pesticides, chemicals, tools, and seeds or plants themselves.
Harvest: Equipment, containers, contact with the ground, and people.
After harvest: Equipment containers, packaging, storage rooms, washing, waxing, people, animals, pests, and transport.
Responsibility for food safety
Various stakeholders share responsibility for food safety.
National governments are responsible for establishing a national food-control system with appropriate legal and policy instruments, well-qualified human resources, sound institutional frameworks and the financial assets, equipment and infrastructure for them to carry out inspections. They also enforce compliance and issue penalties for violations or non-compliance.
National Codex Committees facilitate the aligning of national regulations with the Codex, provide coordination among national stakeholders, and contribute to the development of Codex standards and related texts.
National governments are also responsible for ensuring the supporting infrastructure is able to supply adequate quantities of safe fruit and vegetables. This includes roads for market access, water supplies, power for equipment and cooling systems, access to laboratories and suitable storage facilities.
The private sector, from producers to retailers, is responsible for ensuring compliance throughout the food chain and the necessary facilities, systems, tools and well-trained staff to achieve this.
Innovations in traceability
Traceability is a must-have in fruit and vegetable supply chains to mitigate and manage risks associated with food safety recalls. New traceability practices that use digital technology help ensure food safety and quality, optimise supply chains and reduce loss by making spoilage problems readily detectable (WEF, 2019). Blockchain is an increasingly popular method of traceability because it connects all the stakeholders’ digital records and events in a tamper-resistant format. The information can be accessed at any point from anywhere, yet it cannot be edited or deleted.
